Washington Post Turns On Nan And Her Congressional Dems Over No Vote On Drilling
No Drilling, No Vote
Speaker Pelosi won’t let the House debate the merits of offshore drilling.
(WaPo)
WHY NOT have a vote on offshore drilling? There’s a serious debate to be had over whether Congress should lift the ban on drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf that has been in place since 1981. Unfortunately, you won’t be hearing it in the House of Representatives — certainly, you won’t find lawmakers voting on it — anytime soon.
Instead of dealing with the issue on the merits, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a staunch opponent of offshore drilling, has simply decreed that she will not allow a drilling vote to take place on the House floor. Why not? “What the president would like to do is to have validation for his failed policy,” she said yesterday when asked that very question. “What we’re saying is, ‘Exhaust other remedies, Mr. President.’ . . . It is the economic life of America’s families, and to suggest that drilling offshore is going to make a difference to them paycheck to paycheck now is a frivolous contention. The president has even admitted that. So what we’re saying is, ‘What can we do that is constructive?’ ”
If there is an explanation buried in there about why that makes offshore drilling off-limits for a vote, we missed it. Ms. Pelosi is correct that drilling is no panacea for the nation’s energy woes. The short-term effect of lifting the moratorium, if there were any, would be minimal. That doesn’t mean the country shouldn’t consider expanded drilling as one of many alternatives. There are legitimate concerns about the environmental impact of such drilling — environmental concerns that, we would note, exist in other regions whose oil Americans are perfectly happy to consume. But have technological improvements made such drilling less risky? Why not have that debate?
When they took the majority, House Democrats proclaimed that “bills should generally come to the floor under a procedure that allows open, full and fair debate consisting of a full amendment process that grants the Minority the right to offer its alternatives.” Why not on drilling?
Meanwhile, the dispute has snarled progress on spending bills for fear of having drilling amendments attached. Citing “the uncertainty in how the oil and gas drilling issue is currently playing out on the Senate floor,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) called off committee consideration of spending bills on which Republicans were threatening to offer drilling amendments. The result threatens to be the first time since at least 1950 that lawmakers will go home for the August recess without either chamber having passed a single appropriations bill.
If drilling opponents really have the better of this argument, why are they so worried about letting it come to a vote?
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Strange, isn’t it? Liberals vs. Liberals. That’s not the first time the Washington Post has taken a different position than the dems in Congress, though; especially on the war in Iraq. The WP used to be a reliable redoubt of Liberal thinking. I wonder what’s happening there.
July 26th, 2008 at 6:29 amAre the democrats fearing that an energy independent US will derail their plans of a crippled and dependent America?
July 26th, 2008 at 7:36 amThe WaPo staff’s gotta buy gas too …
July 26th, 2008 at 8:12 amUnder the right leadership the libs could find themselves out of power (pardon the pun) for the foreseeable future.
…but that’s if the GOP is under the right leadership.
July 26th, 2008 at 8:41 amOil independence, energy independence is a topic that could thrust the GOP back into power if they find themselves a leader. Even libistan wants cheaper fuel.
This topic may also be screwy Nan’s Waterloo. When the libistan propaganda machine starts turning on Madame Botox and her bootlck Gay Hairy Weed, the end of their careers might not be far behind.
The Congress is completly out of touch with mainstream America. And it will cost them votes and elections as the price of oil continues to climb while Nasti and her ilk continue to play the fiddle while Rome burns.
July 26th, 2008 at 8:54 amdrill
i was thinking the same thing as i was reading this. its easy to support extreme environmental views when it doesnt involve you. or i guess it would be, dont know for sure. but gas involves all of us.
July 26th, 2008 at 9:12 amThe Republicans need to go back to the 2006 elections where all the Dems running for the house & senate were promising lower gas prices if they were elected. They should run ads with footage of them saying this day & night.
Also did anyone else catch Harry Reid taking credit for the recent drop in oil prices. How deluded is this guy or does he think Americans are idiots that will believe everything he says.
July 26th, 2008 at 9:47 am“What can we do that is constructive?”
Eat a fucking bullet for starters.
July 26th, 2008 at 9:53 amLeftists want $8 a gallon gas for a number of reasons. Most importantly they want $8 gas to prevent green and white flight. They dont want people with money fleeing the urban shitholes they’ve created through their leadership and policies. They’ve sat idle watching whites and their green backs flee the cities at a rate that makes liberalism impossible.
They don’t want you living in the burbs or in the country. They want you living in their urban jungles where they can rule over you and $8 a gallon gas is their ticket. No more personal modes of transportation, hop on the light rail if you need a ride, or the metro bus and be sure to put in some OT at work. After all liberal policy cant survive without your money……and don’t forget to start stocking up on your carbon credits kiddies!!
July 26th, 2008 at 10:47 amI’ve noticed that some of the WaPo editorial page has developed a backbone lately. I think they were Hillary Clinton backers and are very dissapointed. She is a dispicable person, basically a dictator, by refusing to let the people have a voice. She’s done this on trade, on energy, on wiretaps (until she was forced to let it go forward because the warrants were expiring), etc. She really is the worst I ‘ve seen as speaker. She doesn’t even believe in democracy. She should be tarred and feathered.
July 26th, 2008 at 11:37 amReally, also, Buck Hoff is right. The attorney general of California, Moonbeam Jerry Brown has flat out admitted as much–he is even SUING cities and counties in California to force them to institute his policies to stop suburban development and force people to live in highrises in the cities, where they “won’t use as much energy and resources to commute, etc.” Commies, all of them.
July 26th, 2008 at 11:39 amBrian you are all over it!! Run those adds nonstop!! Run adds of Pelosi and insane Reid. In all sincerity I beleive Reid is disturbed!! Energy independence and all the positives that go along with it will create havoc on the Dems dream of Socialism!!
July 26th, 2008 at 12:04 pmThis story should be used over and over again by the McCain campaign.
July 27th, 2008 at 1:50 am