No matter how bad the accident, we don’t stop issuing new driver’s licenses.

So why would Deepwater Horizon stop us from approving new oil drilling?

Oh, right, because President Obama said we were going to stop, after Deepwater Horizon got that big case of the runs. As has often been the case, though, what Obama says isn’t necessarily the same as what his administration does. From the New York Times:

In the days since President Obama announced a moratorium on permits for drilling new offshore oil wells and a halt to a controversial type of environmental waiver that was given to the Deepwater Horizon rig, at least seven new permits for various types of drilling and five environmental waivers have been granted, according to records.

That is strange. It’s also good news: it means Obama’s moratorium wasn’t the excessively reactionary knee-jerk it looked like at first.

This also marks the second time in as many weeks that the NYT has done some kind of hit job (if this counts as a hit job) on Democrats. What’s going on over there?

Via Memeorandum.