Say Anything Blog

Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has apparently decided to use whatever procedural maneuvers are at her disposal to thwart any attempt to hammer out a compromise between Republicans in the White House and Congress and “blue Dog” Democrats to allow more domestic exploration and drilling for oil.

“The president of the United States, with gas at $4 a gallon because of his failed energy policies, is now trying to say that is because I couldn’t drill offshore,” Pelosi said in an interview. “That is not the cause, and I am not going to let him get away with it.”

And she and Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, appear intent on holding the line against calls to approve drilling in areas now off limits…

Representative John Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader who is escorting a delegation to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge this weekend, said the Democratic approach was woefully insufficient. He said Pelosi, in insisting on preserving the drilling ban, was putting Democrats in the cross hairs of voters furious about gas prices.

Boehner is correct.  Last week’s Rasmussen poll had the price of oil as the single most important issue to most voters.  Pelosi is flagrantly playing partisan politics with the nation’s economic well-being.

In a private meeting last week, according to some in attendance, Pelosi told members of her leadership team that a decision to relent on the coastal ban would amount to capitulation to Republicans and the White House. She attributes today’s energy problems to a failure of the Bush administration to develop a comprehensive approach, its ties to the industry and a mishandling of the economy.

It’s astounding that anyone so clueless about basic economics could rise to the position of Speaker of the House.  Of course, she is a Democrat… which explains a lot.  Still, without some meaningful followup to the President’s order removing the Executive ban on further Alaska and offshore drilling, the price of oil, which dropped briefly below $130 a barrel today, will back pushing $150 per barrel in no time.

Its the economy, Stupid!