First, let’s recall that Rahm Emanuel is best understood in context: “Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is, it’s an opportunity to do things you couldn’t do before.”

Second, today Roll Call reports (subscription required) that during today’s White House meeting — called by the president to try and advance his global-warming agenda by using the Gulf spill as the tail to wag that otherwise dead dog — Obama accused Tennessee senator Lamar Alexander of raising a “talking point” by seeking to discuss response measures the government might employ in the Gulf, and went on to say that the oil spill was not the topic of the meeting.

Remember, the point of the meeting was supposed to be how to pass a spill-response bill, though the substance was revealed to be how to use the Gulf spill to pass a global-warming bill calling it a spill-response bill.

Ignore for the moment that this lecturing comes from a man without experience in anything; his main qualification for the presidency — by his own admission — was having run a campaign (well, OK, the campaign manager really did that, but no one as big on blame as this guy is would be too concerned about stealing credit). Focus instead on what this episode reveals incontrovertibly: This administration views crises in exactly the same way as its chief of staff does: They’re to be used.

Not solved — used for other purposes.

Maybe the crisis that the Obama administration itself represents won’t go to waste — and will serve to persuade the public to elect a competent government in the two political branches.

– Chris Horner is a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and a best-selling author. His latest book is Power Grab: How Obama’s Green Policies Will Steal Your Freedom and Bankrupt America.