... is admitting you have a problem. It looks like the house Democrats just admitted they have one. They're on the wrong side of the energy production issue, and they know it.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Monday morning that the
newest Democratic energy bill will be brought to the floor under normal
rules and will be subject to a vote on a Republican alternative that is
likely to call for even more drilling than Democrats are prepared to
swallow...
Now that Democrats are introducing their own proposal to allow drilling of the coasts of a handful of Gulf Coast states, they believe they can hold back the GOP energy bill, which calls for opening up both the Outer Continental Shelf and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Now that Democrats are introducing their own proposal to allow drilling of the coasts of a handful of Gulf Coast states, they believe they can hold back the GOP energy bill, which calls for opening up both the Outer Continental Shelf and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Despite this tacit admission of a political liability, this will be dicey politics for Republicans. If they can't get their wider bill passed but go along to get some additional drilling allowed then they'll take the drilling issue off the table for November. If they hold out for ANWR and the OCS then Democrats will demagogue them as blocking drilling.
It may be too much to ask for a majority of American people to recognize just who's being cynical here. Republicans will have their work cut out for them in educating the public.
