… but I’m still keeping the 2600m2 (28,000 sq. ft.) super mansion.”

And probably his staff limousine and personal charter airplane as well.

This item from earlier today in Fox News where The Silky One (Democratic Presidential hopeful John Edwards) himself was addressing a forum of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers:

“I think Americans are actually willing to sacrifice… …One of the things they should be asked to do is drive more fuel efficient vehicles.”

And when asked if that meant giving up SUVs, he said “Yes”.

Now, I’ve never been a great fan of SUVs — for the most part, the folks I know who routinely drive the vehicular beasts almost have no business being behind the wheel of these vehicles, mainly because they really do not know the physics behind driving vehicles substantially heavier than a compact car, much less forgetting about the bigger blind spots, and the greater braking distances required… to say nothing of thinking that driving a 6,000 lb. four wheel drive vehicle means is the same as driving an M1A2 Abrams tank.

And, yes… I know that as a Christian, I should not revel in Schadenfreude when I see so many SUVs in the ditch during a snowstorm (with only a half-inch of snow on the ground!) whilst I cruise on by in my old beater of a Subaru. It takes a good measure of restraint, and more often, a prayer asking for forgiveness, because for the grace of God, so go I.

Moreover though, a LOT of SUV drivers (especially the luxury SUV drivers with the Benzs or Lexuses [Lexi?]) tend to be not too nice to smaller cars they need to share the road with. SUVs were quite the bane of my existence as a motorcyclist as well. But, for some folks, they are altogether necessary.

In fact, I’ve toyed around with the idea of getting a “mini-SUV” (like a RAV-4) for my wife, as packing her and the young-un (still in a car seat that takes up almost more than half the backseat) for a grocery trip can become a very cramping experience in the ol’ Sube.

Other folks need SUVs and big diesel trucks as a part of their livelihood. And my dear old Dad did teach me one thing (among many things, actually) that remains of value to me today: Ya just don’t mess around with another man’s livelihood.

So, I can get by with other folks’ use of SUVs.

The Silky Pony thinks otherwise. As much as a construction worker or a logger or a group of guys who like to take the ol’ Dodge Ram out on the hunt might be tempted to vote Democrat… I don’t think they would cotton to his eco-gospel straight from the pits of the Goreacle.

BUT…

… there is also the matter of this big house that our Breck Girl (boy?) loves as a simple of his rise from being the son of a poor textile mill worker to being a sharkskin-suited, immaculately coiffed ambulance chaser malpractice and personal injury attorney, and now, potential Democratic candidate for the Presidency.

Not too bad, many others have done no worse, and have earned themselves the means and the ability to live splendidly.

But some of us folks take umbrage to the Silky One when he tells us that we can’t have our cake and eat it, while he’s seated at the table looking for a third helping. And to add fuel to the fire (oops, bad pun - how about corn syrup to the cake? ) …

the Pony drives no less a car than not just one, but two SUV-class motor vehicles. (h/t to Jonathan of the CrushLiberalism Blog, quoting a VRWC memo posted on Hot Air)

To be fair, one is a SUV, the other a pickup truck (which can come in sizes fit to rival any SUVs - and if I am not mistaken, some pickups and SUVs share the same chassis).

Edwards, happy to promote his energy-efficient Escape, also still owns a 2004 Chrysler Pacifica midsize SUV and a 1994 GMC truck, according to state vehicle registration records.

But fret not - because according to this item dug up the same link from via Hot Air, The Silky One has made not only his mega-mansion — wait for it… CARBON NEUTRAL.

Now again, that is carbon neutrality for the house — a mansion that sprawls over 28,000 square feet (folks, that is more than 10 average size American homes at 2500 s.f. each) and which probably over its lifetime has contributed to the emissions of countless tons of carbon, not to mention the clearing of CO₂ absorbing trees.

And not only the house, but if you vote for him in 2008… he’ll also throw in carbon neutrality for the whole campaign!

Now, the way I understand carbon offsetting works is, is this:

You calculate your carbon footprint, and then you buy shares in a venture that reclaims forest or buys Amazonian rain forest so that the Brazilians can’t mow them down to make biodiesel and ethanol bio-fuel… (sounds good, but there is only so much rain forest you can buy before the carbon you’re “protecting” can no longer offset what the Red Chinese are emitting to make your cheap goods for tenths of a penny on the US dollar).

And that’s just one of the more credible of the carbon offset schemes. Some of them get into some other wacky eco-freaky voodoo, where somebody is laughing themselves into a hernia on the way to their Swiss Bank account.

I gotta wonder just many acres of rain forest he needs to keep Brazil Ethanol, Inc. from turning into Post-It notes in order to keep this set of digs under tillage:

O Silky One with the Truly Radiant and Bulletproof Hair:

If you REALLY want to reduce your carbons, and convince the rest of us that you really are not a lousy, stinking, low-down, victimizing greedy ambulance chaser who will usher in an age of corruption so ugly that Bill Clinton himself will give you a standing ovation… then sell the SUVs to a scrap yard so it can be recycled into something useful like razor blades, sell off the Hacienda or simply let it go to back to wilderness, and shack up in a tidy tenement flat in DC.

And maybe then, we will be a little less likely to burst out into peals of mocking laughter at you for telling us to “make sacrifices” and give up our SUVs.