Hybrid coalition

Energy | A new Congress adds momentum to an odd alliance of conservative “cheap hawks” and liberal “tree huggers” | Priya Abraham

Former CIA director R. James Woolsey owns a Toyota Prius, a gas-electric hybrid, with a bumper sticker on the back that reads, "Bin Laden hates this car."

His car makes a visual aid for his cause: that using less gasoline means Islamic terrorists and their supporting regimes such as Iran have less oil money to buy arms and explosives. He's also part of the Set America Free Coalition, a group that boasts "tree huggers, do-gooders, sodbusters, cheap hawks, and evangelicals . . . and Willie Nelson."

The cheap hawks are the standouts in this motley crowd—pro-defense Washington insiders like Woolsey, Center for Security Policy president and columnist Frank Gaffney, and Middle East Forum director Daniel Pipes. For the sake of fighting terrorists, they have made common cause with liberal environmentalists in advocating alternative fuels for energy independence.