Taking a cue from Jimmy Carter?

Oh what the heck! The world seems to be going to hell in a handbasket anyway. I'll suppose that next we'll see GWB on the boob tube wearing a cardigan sweater. From here:

But now, almost a quarter century after he left the White House, Carter has found a Republican ally. Responding to rising concern about shortages of gasoline and spikes in energy prices caused by the havoc Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have wrecked in the refining regions of the Gulf Coast, President Bush has delivered a distinctly Carteresque call for conservation.

Bush is urging people to avoid unnecessary car trips and preaching, "We can all pitch in by being better conservers of energy."

Bush even promised, in another echo of Carter, that the federal government will take the lead. "If it makes sense for the citizen out there to curtail nonessential travel, it darn sure makes sense for federal employees," the president said this week. "We can encourage employees to carpool or use mass transit, and we can shift peak electricity use to off-peak hours. There's ways for the federal government to lead when it comes to conservation."

Next thing you know, the White House will have its thermostat set at 65 degrees, the speed limits will be back at 55, and the Presidential limo will refrain from making jack rabbit starts and stops. But, unlike Carter, President Bush does have a cute little mascot to remind us to conserve energy:

Ain't big government grand? Pass the peanuts malaise.