RUSH: Steven Chu. Remember him, the energy secretary, “the Nobel prize-winning” energy secretary who appeared before a congressional committee and said that he wasn’t interested in gasoline prices coming down? Instead, he’s interested in getting us off of oil, which is not possible. It is not going to happen. There’s nothing else to use. It won’t happen. It’s pie-in-the-sky dreaming. There’s no way we can get off oil. And if this administration tries to take us off of oil we’re going to be plunged into a recession, and we’re gonna be moving backwards to the seventh century and we’re gonna looking to Afghanistan. It will never happen, folks. The engine of freedom is fueled by oil, the free flow of oil at market prices.

Anyway, Steven Chu’s back, and he renounced his previously stated desire to see gas prices rise to match European levels. He recently said that he didn’t care about gas prices coming down. He thought they should be as high as they are in Europe because of fairness (we need to find out what it’s like to live in the rest of the world) and conservation. He was more interested in getting us off oil. Well, he told the Senate today that he wants gasoline prices to fall, now, for the sake of the economy. So somebody took him to the woodshed. Probably a pollster from the New York Times called the White House and said, “Hey, look, we did the best we could with these numbers, but it’s bad. And Chu is not helping it by telling everybody he wants gas prices to go up and doesn’t care about them coming down.”

So in 2008, Chu said, “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.” That’s what he said in 2008. He was reminded of that comment today during his congressional testimony, and he backed away from it. “I no longer share that view,” said Chu to Senator Mike Lee, Republican, Utah. Chu said, “When I became Secretary of Energy, I represented the United States government, and I think right now in this economic very slow return these prices could very well affect the comeback of our economy.” It sounds like he’s not sure that gasoline prices might have a deleterious effect on the economy.

So Chu is now saying his previous statements are no longer operational. That’s how the Democrats characterize their gaffes.