John Warner, a Virginia senator who at age 81 has obviously outlived his “need for speed,” has suggested the nation’s Congress might consider another “national speed limit” in the face of $4-a-gallon gasoline and it is equally obvious he is not running for re-election.

Sen. Warner once had some zip, evidenced by the fact he was married to actress Elizabeth Taylor for a spell, but the Republican showed me the other day he “has lost it.” He is sorely mistaken if he thinks the American people are going to abide with another 55-mile per hour monstrosity the way they did back in the 1970s and ‘80s.

For those of us who endured the horrors of “going slow” back then, there were CB radios and radar detectors everywhere because of the Arab oil embargo, and just the thought of Congress doing something so foolish during an election year is as preposterous as it is politically lethal.

Now ole John is right when he claims if you go slow you don’t use as much fuel. The Department of Transportation has come up with a formula that says for every five miles you go faster than 60 miles an hour, you’ll cost yourself “essentially 30 cents more per gallon.”

But where the 81-year-old, who was the Secretary of the Navy under Richard Nixon, badly misses the boat is that extra 30 cents per gallon isn’t paid by the government. It is paid by the end-user. That is you and me. Real old people have a tough time understanding younger people like to make their own decisions regarding their welfare.

One reason Sen. Warner’s Republican Party is getting whipped around is that more and more people like to think for themselves. Right now the Toyota Pyrius, a hybrid car, is such a top seller because people want to save fuel, or get the maximum usage. Bravo for them. That’s the American way.

But for the senator to suggest the American people go 55 miles per hour, or something equally silly, on the interstate flies in the face of an individual’s right to decide, particularly if the citizens are buying the gas. Sen. Warner should get out more often and, when he does, he should visit some truck-stop diners if he wants an easy course in fuel costs vs. time management.

Sure, Sen. Warner is quick to throw out studies that show a 55 mph speed limit will save 2 percent of the nation’s fuel consumption and – he claims – will lessen automobile deaths by 4,000 every year, but he doesn’t grasp that “time is money,” nor does he factor in the suicide figure that would doubtlessly occur if some were told their Corvettes or BMWs could go no faster than a national limit.

He also doesn’t understand people today want fewer laws, not more of them. His fuel solution is so much like one of these stupid things Congress does to “protect us from ourselves.” If every senator and every member of Congress wants to drive only on two-lane roads at 35 miles an hour to set an example for the rest of us that’s one thing, but, please, let’s find something else for the senator from Virginia to worry about.

Angela Hill, a spokeswoman for the Department of Energy, said her department would review the senator’s letter, but she also said, “If Congress is serious about addressing gasoline prices, they must take action on expanding domestic oil and natural gas production.”

Some others in government have been saying the same thing for years, but many of those who have been elected, particularly for a long length of time, act as if they are surprised. John Warner has been a senator for almost the last 30 years and now he appears candid when he said he wants to know if the administration might support Congress’s effort to lower the speed limit. Puh-lease!

In the meanwhile, gasoline prices over the holiday weekend averaged $4.10 a gallon, and, yes, that includes taxes.

royexum@aol.com