Posted by
JTD on Saturday, August 02, 2008 2:21:55 PM
Pelosi, Reid and the democrats are on the wrong side of the drilling issue and it is time to hammer them into submission.
The President needs to call the Congress back into special session immediately. Polls show that the country is strongly behind the Republican push to authorize wide spread drilling. Unbelievably, 51% of CALIFORNIA voters polled this last week favored offshore drilling. Yes, you read that right. 51% of CALIFORNIA VOTERS. This is clearly a watershed moment. The President cannot allow this opportunity to get away.
Pelosi's heavy handed petulance in turning off the lights while Republicans were attempting to rally support for extending the session to allow for action on drilling has highlighted the obstructionist tactics of the dems on energy.
The President, with John McCain at his side, needs to announce the urgent need for action on energy and call for a special session. The Republicans need to take to the airways and announce their unanimous support for a special session.
The entire party especially must demand that Obama take a firm position on the special session. Yes or No Barrack? No in between. No BO BS! Yes or no, plain and simple.
While the President can call a special session, he cannot force the congress to act. But this is win-win for the President and the Republicans. The media spotlight will be on the special session. If Pelosi and Reid continue to keep this issue from getting to the floor in a special session, their craven beholding to their special interests will be front and center for the entire country to see.
With oil prices hovering at $120+ and the Republicans clamoring for action on energy, the dems are caught between the Scylla of obstructionism and the Charybdis of alienating their base. Win-Win for us. Lose-lose for them.
Here's is perhaps the most important reason for calling the Congress into special session: Public relations insurance if the drilling dispute shuts down the government later this year. The dems are going to refuse to bring budget appropriations to the floor, because to do so would allow Republicans the opportunity to offer amendments concerning drilling.
They are willing to force a government shutdown with the intention of placing the blame on the Republicans. They are fondly remembering the government shutdown that resulted from the Clinton-Gingrich budget impasse in the mid 90s. Gingrich and his party took it on the chin for that one.
But that was then, this is now! First, this time the public is on the side of the Republicans. But most importantly, by calling a special session now, and perhaps even a second special session if Congress fails to act, Bush immunizes the Party from blame if a shut down does occur. The President can point to his calls for a special session on energy as definitive proof that the Republicans tried mightily to avoid a shut down.
This is jugular time. The dems are down. It is time to stomp on them mercilessly. If Obama can be tainted with Pelosi's intransegence on this issue, so much the better, he will never recover. Sic 'em, Mr. President!
THE MALESTROM QUOTE OF THE DAY: "If at first the idea is not absurd, there is no hope for it." Albert Einsten