House Democrats Embrace Drilling! Kind Of. Sort Of. Not Really . . .

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi led the charge and rallied her troops to stop any notion the Republicans have of expanding oil drilling in an effort to make the country less dependent on foreign crude. She and her cohorts abandoned Washington, turned off the lights and shut the microphones off at the Capitol building, leaving Republican lawmakers literally standing in the dark talking to each other about the importance of expanding domestic oil drilling. What a difference a few weeks makes. Poll after poll reveals the American people want expanded domestic oil drilling, and they want it now. Democrat representatives apparently read the polls too, and they were running scared that their core values were being challenged by the voters. The higher the poll numbers in favor of drilling, the lower the approval ratings of Congress dropped. The American people rightfully viewed Congress as blocking the path to the obvious solution to the problem – drill baby, drill! Americans saw through the ridiculous excuses the Democrats were offering not to drill. Even Sen. Barack Obama warmed up to the idea of increased domestic drilling. He said that as president he would sign a bill increasing domestic drilling if it included providing for alternative means of energy research and production. Guess he also got the Democrat talking points memo about faking that you are for increased drilling. To hear the Democrats talk now, you would think they came up with the idea instead of opposing it. President Bush pushed the Democrat-led Congress to the edge of the cliff by indicating that he might not support additional spending bills unless it allowed a longstanding moratorium on offshore drilling to expire at the end of this month. This Congress has a well-deserved reputation for doing nothing, so please continue doing nothing and let the moratorium expire. Democrat voters must wonder what is going on with their Democrat representatives, especially with the leadership displayed by House Speaker Pelosi. It appeared that they were going to stick by their warped core values and fight for what they perceived as right. But as usual, being politicians, they rolled over after moistening their forefingers to feel which way the wind was blowing. Their method of governing by polls is the only thing prompting them to finally get on board with drilling. Getting re-elected and retaining power are obviously more important to them than sticking by what they believe to be right, even when it’s wrong. The hue and cry for more and cheaper energy trumped their goal of reducing gasoline consumption by allowing prices to go through the roof. I’m not complaining that the Democrats are on board with offshore drilling. I’m merely pointing out that they will say and do whatever is necessary to remain in office. Their flip-flop and loud chants of “drill, drill” will last until the election is over, then it will be back to gridlock as usual. I find it hard to believe that this sudden conversion is genuine. Democrat representatives will now have re-election-campaign bragging rights that they too supported the concept of additional drilling, although they secretly hope that the moratorium will be extended. The compromise bill in the House authorizes drilling along the entire U.S. coastline, if the individual states affected approve drilling in their own back yard. And the drilling would only be permitted between 50 and 100 miles offshore. This seems like weak-kneed leadership to me. Why not let drilling take place where oil is most likely to be found, as opposed to over the horizon where derricks can’t be seen? Democrats won’t allow that because the oil companies might find crude there. They want it both ways – increase oil drilling, but not where you might find it. More crude means lower gas prices, and that’s a sin according to their religion of ecology. They would be perfectly satisfied to turn the clock back 100 years and wait for undeveloped or non-existent technologies to take the place of gasoline, power generation and heating. All of this illustrates the tremendous lack of leadership in Congress. Instead of being in favor of reducing the nation’s dependence on foreign oil, reducing the trade deficit and keeping dollars here, Democrats want the opposite. Democrats would like you to believe they’re for more drilling, when in reality, they will drop that proposal like a red hot solar panel if Barack Obama gets the keys to the White House.