Republican Jackass of the Week

John Stossel, who worked for years at ABC News and now is at the Fox Business Channel.

Here are the first couple of lines from his recent essay on Fox's website:

Plan to drive more this summer? Annoyed by the price of gas? Complaining that oil companies rip you off?

I say, shut up. Even if gas costs $4 per gallon, we should thank Big Oil.

Got that? We should thank the oil companies that are at the root of the biggest source of pollution in the world and global climate change. And just ignore the thousands of spills the people and animals of the planet have endured.

Yeah, thanks a bunch.

Stossel claims we should be thankful to them because they have to do so much. And what do they get? Nothing. Well, a lot. Record-breaking amounts of a lot.

It's hard work having to suck the oil out of the ground, refine it and then schlep it to you ungrateful wretches.  Nevermind that for each of the last several years, they made higher profits than any other companies in the history of the world. Record-breaking profits. Higher than any company since... forever.

Keep in mind, these same Fox righwing oil company apologists defended the highest gas prices in American history, when the price spike occurred mid 2008, during Dubya's last year in office.

Only when a similar but smaller spike took place during President Obama's first term did they scream.

Come on, John. I know you work at Fox. But even you should know better. Defending the ruthless companies that have a monopoly on oil and gas, and conspire to raise prices and gouge people at will -- not to mention spill, pollute and kill countless animals and people in the process -- makes you our Republican Jackass of the Week.

Your certificate's in the mail.