GOP lies about gas prices, but Truscott too?

Among the dozens of press secretaries I’ve dealt with in Lansing and Washington, the most effective was John Truscott, who ably served governor John Engler for three terms.

Always a forceful advocate for his boss, Truscott rarely degenerated into conservative dogma or bomb-throwing in making Engler’s case.

Today, Truscott is co-director of the highly regarded Truscott Rossman consulting firm in the state capital. He also has landed a side job as a participant in the Sunday Detroit Free Press in a toe-to-toe column with Democratic political consultant Jill Alper.

In that role, he has sometimes stepped over the edge into Republican Party hyperbole.

For example, last Sunday, he said that the price of gas could be heading toward $5-a-gallon over the next year. Of course, this claim stands in direct contradiction to numerous news reports that gas is in the early stages of a 50-cent reduction.

At least Truscott pulled on the reins and avoided the recent GOP nonsense about gas reaching $5 or $6 per gallon by the 2012 Election Day.

None of these assertions has any basis in fact. But Truscott took things way over the edge in his anti-Democrat rant when he made the ridiculous claim that disgruntled consumers are paying “a few hundred bucks extra every week” at the pump than they used to.

Really?

Let’s assume the average motorist gets 20 mpg from their vehicle and that they travel 10,000 miles per year. Let’s also be generous to Mr. Truscott and assume that this motorist has been highly agitated ever since per-gallon gasoline prices topped $3 and continued their climb.

So, this person is paying about $1 more per gallon than at that moment when the angst began to surface.

But, in order to pay “a few hundred bucks” more per week – let’s say $250 more than in the past – that motorist would have to drive 5,000 miles per week. That equates to 260,000 miles a year.

Let’s be clear: Gas won’t be at $6 a gallon in November 2012, and motorists hurt by gas prices don’t travel 260,000 miles a year.

But, if you’re the GOP and you want to get voters’ attention, you don’t just tell a lie – you tell a big lie.