GOP'ers protest over energy -- best show in town

This is Day Two of the GOP revolt over energy, and the debate is taking place in a darkened House floor with no microphones, no lights and no C-SPAN cameras (on orders of the Democratic speaker). So Republican congressmen pushing for an up-or-down vote on offshore oil drilling have taken to twittering (notifying an army of folks, in 40-word bites), posting Qik and YouTube videos and corralling unsuspecting tourists to plead their case to the public.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi adjourned the House Friday over Republican objections, saying that offshore oil drilling is a false hope and that rushing back from vacation to vote on it would "mislead the American people as to thinking it's going to reduce the price at the pump." At the White House, spokesman Tony Fratto said the president would not call Congress back from vacation because Pelosi might then just gavel them back into recess again. Sort of a physical manifestation of the policy gridlock that already consumes Washington.

 

So in the meantime, the GOP congressmen keep returning to the darkened floor. The Hill newspaper reported that some have come with props: Rep. Steve King of Iowa arrived carrying a large photo of Pelosi with a caption quoting her as saying, "I am trying to save the planet." Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee came with an empty red gas can and an energy efficient light bulb.

Not to be outdone in the theatrics department, MoveOn.org folks headed up to Capitol Hill this afternoon to pass out stickers describing the GOP as the Grand Oil (instead of Old) Party. Gosh, cynics might suggest that Congress doesn't get this much attention when they're in town!

The best free show in town continues all week, and maybe throughout the month, say the Republicans.

-- Johanna Neuman

Comments

[Stephen]

Nancy Pelosi "just wants to save the planet". How this woman could be elected to the position of dog catcher, let alone the House of Representatives and SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE is proof positive this country has some of the dumbest people on earth serving in positions of great political power and influence. It would be funny if not so serious.

[walliat]

Democrats have gone on vaction while the hard working American people continue to suffer.

[Hal]

The Republicans are right. We should be drilling our own Oil rather than sending our dollars to Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Venezualia. The Democrats are making us into a poor nation. Who has a lower poll number than Bush, the
Democrat congress.

[Ernest Barbosa]

The GOP is towing the Bush Administration line which is geared up to cloak the fact that the Auto Industry has been shirking the already-established, viable and workable technology of an electric car whose battery can last longer than General Motors ever publicly acknowledged, because the Federal Government and the Auto Industry are in bed with Big Oil. Enough is enough. The public does not exist to bolster Big Oil. General Motors and all other auto-makers, be on notice that the public is ON TO YOU, now that the video, "Who Killed The Electric Car" is becoming more and more widely known.

[Fareed H. Ansari]

These people had Years to deal with the Energy Issue. Don't we have a DOE,
Department of Energy. Who are these people taking their orders from for the Protest? They are protesting against their own lack of leadership. This behavior is sickening and of no Help. This is the only time and place to deal with an issue? What have they been doing the rest of their regular session?

[Karl]

I'm loving it. Finally, the Republicans have grown a pair and are sticking it to the Dems. They should have acted like this when they were the Majority party...maybe then they still would be.

[Daniel]

Good for them the people of this country expect compromise and solutions not empty rhetoric and partisan politics. Offshore drilling + Alternative Energy Investments (Wind & Solar) + Nuclear please make a compromise.

[Dave]

Are these adults?

Seriously?

[JMFulton, Jr.]

Goodness me, another cheap GOP publicity stunt. Or, does the GOP know something? As in, the plurality of likely voters will be swayed by cheap theatrics like this and, moreso, by the really cheap one-line rhetoric that links off-shore oil drilling tomorrow with pump prices today.
This is perfect opportunism.... It reminds me of anothe bit of history... the 2001-02 Bush-Cheney initiative to whip up support for the fight against Al Qaeda in Iraq. Same strategy...use panic and theatrics to get what reasoned minds would not otherwise allow in calmer times.

[philtro]

why don't we start using the thousands of acres of land already leased to the oil companies which they are sitting on. these lands have proven reserves.

[Sebastian]

Republicans are SATAN! The only reason they want to allow offshore drilling is so that American oil companies can rip us off without having to go across the ocean to get oil.

If oil prices were really high, then why are American oil companies enjoying billions in UNTAXED profits? But it's easier to blame OPEC and the Arabs because they're on the other side of the world. For sure we don't want to place blame on Exxon, Chevron, BP, Shell, etc. etc. because their headquarters are right around the corner! They are the ones that control the oil, their traders set the price, and WE pay the price!

The Saudi oil industry provides free health care, a free education, and economic stability for it's citizens. What's the American oil industry going to do for me if allowed to plunder into our natural reserves?

The solution: nationalize the American oil industry. Oil resources belong to the American people--not to BIG OIL!

Besides, we've already nationalized Amtrak, Fannie Mae, Fredie Mac, etc. etc. etc.

[Kitt]

Wow, how DARE anybody try to save the planet. After all, it's only here for us to use recklessly and without conscious. God forbid it should sustain itself amid the staggering amount of toxins and waste we mindless humans produce.

[Brian]

Wow, those Republicans are really willing to go to the mat to ensure more handouts of our public lands and coastlines to enrich Big Oil.

And considering the billions in profit they reported in the 2nd quarter, one wonders whose side the GOP is really on - The American People or Big Oil?

Luckily Obama is calling their bluff today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJPo5IGTd0A

[One more for less of the same]

So let's vote Obama already and get on with the recovery...

[Karpy]

Thursday Obama tells us the Republicans are trying to trick by wanting to drill for the billions of oil offshore our nation. He tells us we can savemore then that by just inflating our tires and tuning up our cars..
Saturday he states is open for drilling.
Today he wants to punish the very industry that can stop this gas mayhem by taxing American OIl out of existence, and giving all a 1,000$ check to pay for it.
Pelosi and Obam take us for fools and it's time to force an up or down vote of drilling on and off shore America. The Russian and Chicoms are preparing to drill off the East Coast and must act. Put it a vote Pelsi and let the chips fall where they may. You are not our Queen, and Obama is not our Fuhrer..yet.

[Rick]

The protest was fine at first but it is taking on the form of a sad, pathetic little circus that doesn't seem to be of much interest to anyone

[airplane]

drilling contracts let in 2012 , drilling complete in 2020,may be a few cents cheaper, if we,re lucky.

any one of you set in a gas line, only allow 10 gal , i don,t think so there is no shortage.

what you say lets save it for our kid,s and grandchildren. those people up on the 50th floor are doing a great job of ripping us off, with out it.

THINK THINK THINK, it is not your bank account they are concernED about, ITS THIERS

[Larry Clifton]

This may work well for the Republicans. With the entire country furious at Democrats over their do-nothing term in control of congress, the Republicans are at least willing to show up. We need change, in the house and senate.

[Allen Roach]

"Great Job Representatives"! What does it cost fellow Americans, that they cannot go on vacation because the high cost of gasoline energy. Yet the Dems can take off and can afford to go anywhere and have a Nice Vacation from all the work they do. What about all the work the common American does to afford to live in this nation now. Yet Congress gets a recess vacation while the rest of us work.

I say a "Great Job" by the Representatives giving of their recess vacation time to get action on the floor now and not later. I say it is a call to action now.......................not later.

Allen Roach........voter.

Again, " Great Job Representatives".

[Frank]

The GOP and Bush create the mess we're in, then try to use it to hold onto power. Remember the tax break on buying big trucks, SUV's and luxury automobiles passed in the first four years of the Bush adminsitration? The secret energy meeting bewteen Cheney and the heads of every major oil company? The Bush family ties to Saudi oil? Cheney's Haliburton relationship? And now every major Western Oil company moving into Iraq? They think global warming and fossil fuel pollution is a joke. To hell with everything, as long we can keep guzzling oil!! Totally irresponsible, disgusting. Ask the athletes in Beijing how good the air is! And I'm not against drilling offshore, I'm against the lies the GOP and McCain are saying, that if we hurry up and drill the gas prices will come down. LIARS. The truth: The gas price is coming down now because LESS PEOPLE ARE DRIVING! Gee, that's called conservation, ain't it?! Alternative fuel, wind and solar power, natural gas and oil(less of it). Take it from a former oil millionaire T. Boone Pickens - not the manipulative, pandering, power-hungry --- politicians!

[Joe]

It is indeed a show. The oil companies are withholding campaign funds (badly needed for this election) because they did not get what they were promised. Please give them those funds, they need them for their campaign. They know that drilling ain't gonna really give us a break, but they have a debt to pay to these companies for taking advances.

[David]

Exxon reported 8% lower production along with record profits. They have unused exploration leases. Mandate that the oil companies increase production. They don't need anything more to do, just the motivation. If high oil prices don't motivate them, perhaps legislation will.

That is the whole point of the Republican circus, isn't it? To legislate lower oil prices than market forces alone are doing?

[Creamsykle]

What a joke. The GOP care only about their big oil freinds, they are just putting on a show.

[Mike S.]

The Liberal Democrats are idiots that do not understand the will of the people, the national security issue that oil is, and prefer to rob the nation of its independence in a number of social and economic ways, preferring the Federal Government to be the "teet of the people" that we can suckle on. Disgusting. Let's have a vote!

[Raman Ujan]

I'd like to see the GOP congressmen in the dark alright...how about a nice dark cell with solitary confinement provided at no additional charge. What a bunch of prima donnas and criminals.