President Sluggo Sends "Mixed Signals" on Renewable Energy

Sometimes rhetoric does translate into reality -- at least when the president is in town. President Sluggo's visit yesterday to an alternative energy laboratory resulted in the rehiring of 32 employees who were let go last month. As the New York Times reports, Bush attributed the hasty rehiring to "some interesting, let me say, mixed signals when it comes to funding."

The president was referring to an embarrassing sidelight of his State of the Union address on Jan. 31, when he called for new research into alternative energy to help wean the nation from its century-old oil habit. But the next day the laboratory announced that a $28 million budget cut was forcing it to lay off researchers in ethanol and wind technology, two of the areas that Mr. Bush cited in his address as full of promise.
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Managers at the laboratory began calling the employees back on Monday, a holiday, and phone calls were continuing on Tuesday. None of the employees were back at work in time for the president's visit, said a laboratory spokesman, George Douglas.