Dick Cheney vs Reality

Historians will have fun collecting all the false statements made by Dick Cheney. The Vice-President's latest missive is that China is drilling off the coast of Florida.

Even Vice President Dick Cheney got into the mix Wednesday, telling an enthusiastic audience at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that as ``George Will pointed out in his column the other day, oil is being drilled right now 60 miles off the coast of Florida. We're not doing it. The Chinese are in cooperation with the Cuban government.

''Even the communists have figured out that a good answer to high prices is more supply,'' he added. ``Yet Congress has said no to drilling in [the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge], no to drilling off the East Coast, no to drilling off the West Coast, no to drilling off Florida.''

China has no permits to drill off the coast of Cuba or Florida. The only drilling rights China has in on the Western part of inland Cuba. Mel Martinez debunked the Chinese drilling story on the Senate floor.

“There is no drilling taking place offshore in Cuba by the Chinese or, according to my sources, by any other country,” Marinez said Wednesday in a speech on the Senate floor.

“Reports to the contrary are simply false. They are akin to urban legends,” Martinez said.

“Any talk of using some fabricated Cuba-China connection as an argument to change U.S. policy has no merit,” Martinez said.

Mel, you served in the Bush administration. Fabricated connections between countries is Cheney's forte.