Conservation; it's for the Little People

Are you, like me, trying to do your patriotic duty to save energy and wean our nation from a dependency on foreign oil?

WASHINGTON — The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat.

“He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. “He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.”

Wow, I like it warm, too. My wife's from Hawai'i. We are putting on an extra layers during the coldest winter in decades, and are not trying to turn our Tundra winter into a Polynesian archipelago.

I wonder how long until giant-mansion, jet-plane, houseboat Al Gore starts to admonish President Obama for the callous, mixed-message he's sending to America.

Meanwhile, in other my-own-rules-don't-apply-to-me news:

On Jan. 21, the day after his inauguration, Obama issued an executive order barring any former lobbyists who join his administration from dealing with matters or agencies related to their lobbying work. Nor could they join agencies they had lobbied in the previous two years.

However, William J. Lynn III, his choice to become the No. 2 official at the Defense Department, recently lobbied for military contractor Raytheon. And William Corr, tapped as deputy secretary at Health and Human Services, lobbied through most of last year as an anti-tobacco advocate. Corr says he will take no part in tobacco matters in the new administration.

Wow; 0 for 2. Thankfully we have a established legacy media that'll never hassle him over these inconveniences.