Ethanol: Boon Or Crime Against Humanity?

The Skinny is Keach Hagey's take on the top news of the day and the best of the Internet.

The Wall Street Journal takes stock of this startling turnabout this morning, just over a year after it looked like the corn-based fuel and the American economy were a match made in heaven.

Ethanol proponents won hearts and wallets last year with promises of great U.S. energy independence, fewer greenhouse gases and help for the farm economy. But lately critics - especially those industries hurt when the price of corn rises -- blame the fuel for pushing up food prices, question its environmental impact and dispute how much it really helps reduce the need for oil.

A recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development concluded that biofuels "offer a cure [for oil dependence] that's worse than the disease." A National Academy of Sciences study said corn-based ethanol could strain water supplies. The American Lung Association expressed concern about a form of air pollution from burning ethanol in gasoline. And political cartoonists have taken to skewering the biofuel for raising the price of food for the world's poor.

Last month, an outside expert advising the U.N. on the "right to food" labeled the use of food crops to make biofuels "a crime again humanity." The U.N. later distanced itself from the remark, but the impact was clear: ethanol is ticking off a lot of people.

And so the once-booming business is in the dumps, with profits squeezed, plans for new plants shelved and stock prices hovering near 52-week lows. Now the fuels lobby is pleading with Congress to drastically boost the amount of ethanol that oil refiners must blend into gasoline.

What would have been a slam-dunk last year could now languish in pending energy legislation that might not pass for weeks, if ever.

Clinton Vs. Giuliani: The Rematch

Why did Rudy Giuliani drop out of this 2000 Senate race against Hillary Clinton?

The New York Times looks into this question in a long report on how this early matchup between Clinton and Giuliani honed skills the two top contenders may soon use against each other in a national arena.

Prostate cancer was the main reason Giuliani gave reporters in announcing his withdrawal from the race. But Times reporter Adam Nagourney got some old staffers to admit that Giuliani was much more interested in carrying on an adulterous affair than actually preparing to serve the nation.

"But some of this aides and senior Washington Republicans say today they had concluded weeks before that he had lost interest in the race, in part because he had become enamored of Judith Nathan, the woman with whom he was having an affair, but also because he realized that he was drawn to the campaign more by the sport and distinction that would come with beating Clinton than he was by the prospect of serving in the Senate," Nagourney wrote.

This time it's different, Nagourney contends. While Giuliani couldn't really bring himself to care about the Senate, he does actually want to be president. But the question still lingers: does he really want this job, or just the prestige and satisfaction that would come from beating his old rival?

John McCain Wants Some Credit For Being Right

The facts on the ground in Iraq are improving, and so is Americans' opinion about them. So why isn't this giving a boost to John McCain, the one Republican candidate who has tied his campaign closely to the troop surge?

The Los Angeles Times probes this enigma but finds few satisfying answers besides, perhaps, "too little, too late."

These ought to be bright days for McCain. McCain criticized former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for sending too few troops, and has stood solidly behind the new strategy of the troop surge. Now, Iraq's civilian death toll has dropped sharply in recent months.

"I knew what needed to be done, and now we're doing it," he told uniformed veterans and others packed into a Lexington, South Carolina barbecue joint.

American seem to agree. A national survey released Tuesday found a shift in Americans' opinion on Iraq, with 48 percent saying the war was going well, up from 30 percent in February. The poll, by the Pew Research Center for People & the Press, found that 74 percent of Republicans said the U.S. military effort was going well, up from 51 percent in February.

Yet this isn't translating into poll gains for the cash-strapped candidate. His call for providing a path to citizenship for some illegal immigrants now living in this country has angered many Republicans, and his support for the war has turned off many of those backed him eight years ago.

According to Iowa Republican Doug Wigert, any credit he would give McCain for supporting the troop building was vastly outweighed by his stand on immigration and the campaign-finance law that bears his name.

"I don't think he's a true Republican," Wigert said.

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