Huh? In between barbs AT President Obama for his previous calls for more off-shore drilling, Maher makes the ludicrous proclamation that Brazil “got off oil in the last 30 years” and thinks America should be able to to it if Brazil did. Cue, again, George Will to ask Maher just exactly when did Brazil get off oil? Ha! Maher seems to stammer, and incredulously requests a fact-check on that, but qualifies it by saying he believes they moved to sugar-cane ethanol in the 70s. Wow. I was as stunned as George Will looked.

Hey, Billy boy. I’ll fact-check for ya. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Brazil is STILL not only producing oil today, but also consuming it. But don’t let those pesky facts get in the way, Mr. Maher. Here’s the study on Brazil’s oil production and use:

According to the Oil and Gas Journal (OGJ), Brazil had 12.6 billion barrels of proven oil reserves in 2009, second-largest in South America after Venezuela. The offshore Campos and Santos Basins, located on the country’s southeast coast, contain the vast majority of Brazil’s proven reserves. In 2008, Brazil produced 2.4 million barrels per day (bbl/d) of oil, of which 76 percent was crude oil. Brazil’s oil production has risen steadily in recent years, with the country’s oil production in 2008 about 150,000 bbl/d (6 percent) higher than 2007. Based on its September 2009 Short-Term Energy Outlook, EIA forecasts Brazilian oil production to reach 2.61 million bbl/d in 2009 and 2.81 million bbl/d in 2010. Brazil’s oil consumption averaged 2.52 million bbl/d in 2008. As a result of this rising oil production and flat consumption growth, EIA expects that Brazil will become a net oil exporter in 2009.

I’ll leave the rest of you to enjoy the rest of the segment. Between Sharpton’s jabs at Bush for Hurricane Katrina, Katrina Vanden Heuvel’s desire for a new “Manhattan Project” or “Apollo Alliance” (gee, where have I heard that term before?) on clean energy, and the abject lack of understanding that there are thousands of oil rigs out there right now, yet we’re focusing on just this one latest mistake, the petard hoisted by the left about energy is folly at best. Again in this segment, George Will, along with Matthew Dowd, have to school the lefties at the table on what realities exist.

I thought Will was trying so hard to not just ask them all “are you all THIS stupid?” He didn’t, but I did as I watched them. Save Will’s & Dowd’s presence, this definitely was not a meeting of the Mensa D.C. chapter.