Senior Republicans distance themselves from 'drill, baby, drill'

The Hill ^ | May 4, 2010 | J. Taylor Rushing

[2ndDivisionVet]

GOP Whip Jon Kyl (Ariz.) and Sen. Pat Roberts (Kan.) said Senate Republicans have never endorsed the phrase.

Two senior Republicans on Tuesday distanced themselves from the controversial "drill, baby, drill" phrase first used by Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele and repeated prominently by 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Speaking in the wake of a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that might have as many political repercussions as environmental ones, GOP Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona and Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas both said Senate Republicans never endorsed the phrase. And Kyl specifically avoided referring to Steele by name.

"That was not a Senate Republican phrase," Kyl said. "I think there was a candidate that used that. I think our phrase was 'drill here, drill now,' meaning here in the United States and as quickly as oil and gas leases are going."

Roberts said Republicans were always uneasy with the catchphrase.

"I don't know about the slogan. The slogan was what, two, three years ago and basically we had a lot of opposition to it anyway."

Steele is believed to have used the phrase first in his address at the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minnesota, where the delegates took to chanting it. Conservative blogger Erik Rush also used it around the same time, and Palin employed it that October in an exchange with then-vice presidential candidate Joe Biden.

"The chant is 'drill, baby, drill,'" Palin told Biden. "And that's what we hear all across this country in our rallies because people are so hungry for those domestic sources of energy to be tapped into."

[Rummyfan]

Is Congress full of Chicken Littles? Yes we’ve had a spill, so let’s clean it up, learn from it and move on. AFAIK, we still need oil. Where do these idiots think it is going to come from?

[jonrick46]

Some of these senior senators are so ancient history that they cannot make decisions that demand real world answers. There are so filled with political thinking that they are incapable of solving real world problems. They are a menace to the security of this nation.

[jonrick46]

I think a few phone calls yelling loud and clear, Drill here, drill now!" should be coming from as many citizens as possible. We cannot let a little setback stop our quest for energy.

The investigations have not even started as to the cause of this oil spill. We may find out it was an intentional failure which allowed combustible gasses to gush out onto the platform deck. If sabotage were the culprit, there needs to be a redesign in the workings of the machinery so that this deliberate failure never happens again.

[ThePatriotsFlag]

I wonder if they would distance themselves from $10 a gallon oil if the drilling is stopped?

[Windflier]

Black people who become Republicans lose their color according to lib media and Dems.

That's funny. Since escaping the Democrat meat grinder, I've become a couple shades darker. LOL

Yeah, I know what they say about us, but what are you gonna do? I just laugh at that childish insult.

[MinuteGal]

Rome is burning and these two morons are using up media space parsing an apropos but light-hearted "slogan".

How do asshats like these ever attain the highest offices in the land? Which came first, their elections or their denseness?

Leni

[rae4palin]

Pathetic.