Leadership Quote by Marty Meehan

A gas pump is doing what stump speeches can’t: delivering an hourly, inescapable reminder that politics is supposed to touch real life. Meehan’s line is built like a casual travel update, but the “I’ve been in Massachusetts” opener is a credibility play. He’s not citing a briefing memo; he’s testifying as a constituent among constituents, watching digits climb. That eyewitness posture matters because it frames the crisis as sensory and immediate, not abstract economics.

The phrase “the fact is” does more than sound blunt. It preemptively swats away the usual partisan noise by implying the evidence is self-evident and public. Everyone can see the numbers on the pump. Then he tightens the screws with “increasing by the hour,” a deliberately dramatic time scale that turns normal volatility into something that feels predatory or manipulated. Whether or not prices literally change hourly is less important than the emotional truth he’s channeling: consumers feel outpaced and powerless.

“Aggressive investigation” is the political release valve. It signals action without committing to a specific policy lever like releasing reserves, regulating markets, or raising fuel standards. Investigation is also a moral frame: if pain is this sharp, someone must be responsible. The subtext is accountability theater with a practical purpose - reassure anxious drivers, pressure oil companies and middlemen, and show a representative is fighting on their side. In the mid-2000s era of price spikes and post-Enron suspicion, “investigation” wasn’t just governance; it was a way to narrate capitalism as something that can, and should, be policed.