Remember when Bob Woodward's book came out and there was all that talk about the Saudis promising to help Bush out this year by boosting oil production? I wrote about it here, here, and here.
An article in USA Today yesterday had this to say:
U.S. Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham says Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi told him Saudi Arabia's daily oil output will rise to 9.1 million barrels in June, a 600,000-barrel increase. Al-Naimi also said Saudi Arabia would go to its full capacity of 10.5 million barrels if needed, which Abraham called "a very important comment on his part."
Why isn't this front page news everywhere? This is exactly what Woodward said would happen. Now, OPEC changes production when they want and there's no way to prove that they're doing it specifically for Bush, but the whole thing is more than a little bit suspicious.
At the very least, the fact that allegations of backroom deals with the Saudis have been made warrants a mention in this piece. Maybe if the piece gets wider coverage, someone will do some -- what's it called -- journalism on it.
