GRAHAM DISPLAYS NEW 'GANG FASHION'.
Posted on 08/14/2008 6:46:28 AM PDT by Delacon
Republicans are threatening to block the annual extension of the ban on offshore oil drilling, claiming to be building support for an effort that Democrats say smacks of a threat to shut down the government.
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., has announced that 36 of the 49 GOP senators had signed a letter to Senate leaders supporting the designation of Oct. 1 - the deadline for renewing the ban for the 28th straight year - as "American Freedom Energy Day" and opposing the extension of the prohibition.
The letter, addressed to both Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, also targets the ban imposed last year on oil shale leasing. "Many people aren't aware that these bans on drilling must be renewed every year, and that all we have to do is to allow these prohibitions to expire on Oct. 1," DeMint said in a statement released Tuesday.
"In just 50 days, Americans will have the freedom to pursue their own energy resources here at home," he added. DeMint argued that it was "irrational to say 'no' to American energy" because it was needed to reduce independence on foreign oil and bring down gas prices.
Today, the senator announced he will begin a tour across South Carolina Thursday to promote greater dependence on domestic energy supplies. "The only way to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and lower prices at the pump is for America to rapidly pursue our own energy sources," DeMint said.
"America should remove barriers to a wide array of new energy supplies ... The first step to lower energy prices is to allow the bans on offshore drilling and oil shale to expire on October 1st," he said.
Aides to Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, said 136 House Republicans had signed a similar letter that the Texas lawmaker started circulating on July 23.
The aides said the campaign to scuttle renewal of the ban was not intended to blunt consideration of the bipartisan compromise energy packages calling for both costal drilling and renewable energy initiatives.
A spokesman for Reid was quick to warn that, because the bans are attached to annual appropriations bills, an attempt to block them could lead to a reprise of the 1995-1996 government shutdown that resulted from an impasse over government spending bills that pit President Clinton against congressional Republicans, led by then House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
"If they want to shut down the government, denying millions of senior citizens their Social Security checks, in order to side with big oil companies, then they should go right ahead," Reid spokesman Jim Manley said today. "But as Speaker Gingrich found out, the entire Republican Party will pay a terrible price in November for such a silly and desperate stunt."
On another front in the partisan fight over energy policy, House Republicans launched another day of floor speeches demanding that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi bring lawmakers back from their August break to deal with high gas prices.
"We are in a good position right now, the Democrats are trying to figure out what to do," said Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., alluding to Pelosi's reversal Monday night of her refusal to allow a floor vote on offshore drilling. But Shimkus deflected a question on whether he thought President Bush should veto a continuing resolution to keep the government functioning after Sept. 30 that calls for extending the coastal drilling moratorium.
The Illinois lawmaker merely responded that House Republicans were prepared to "call [Pelosi's] bluff" on consideration of a comprehensive energy plan.
“unless of course them being in the Senate has warped their minds”
Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Its easy to say its our fault for voting people in again and again, but the reality is we need two term term limits.
In the current system,the incumbent ALWAYS wins the primary unless they are VERY unlucky or screw up big time.
THen, its either them or “Brand X”, so who do we vote for? No choice - and they get elected again and again. The end result is people who lose sight of why they ran for office in the first place, become indebted to special interest groups, get complacent and lazy, and forget who put them there in the first place.
Lago Vista is beautiful. I pass thru often when traveling 1431 to Marble Falls and beyond. Do you like it there?
Absolutely agree with you. If the congressionals all flew commercial flights, you can bet the security measures at the airports would be more streamlined. Same goes for public transportation.
If the American taxpayers refused to pay for the congressionals free leased cars and made them use public transportation, we’d have a great commuter system in this country real quick.
Unfortunately, they’re all sitting up there far far away from their home districts and become too insulated from We the Peoples!
Lago is a very nice place, but it is in Travis county. We have that curly headed liberal - State Representative Donna Howard in the Texas House. Other than that, not a bad place to live.
That’s so true. If the congress critters had to live with the same health care and retirement systems the public has - and has to pay for - those would be working in short order too.
Add Smith, Snowe and Hagel.....although they are Dims, with R’s behind their names
We already TERM LIMIT the POTUS....for crying out loud!!
I agree, but the congress critters, especially the Senate, have the ultimate power grab. They are reelected too many times, i.e., Robert KKK Byrd and the swimmer.
Chuckie Hegel - the guy who CRIED in Congress. Snowe is a clueless elitist. Don’t know the other RINO, but I’ll take you word on it.
If I remember correctly—and I have a lot of years to rememer—it was always new-clee-er until John F. Kennedy started pronouncing it new-cue-ler. Obviously just about no one wants to correct his pronounciation.
Of course now it’s all George Bush’s fault!
“rememer” = remember! (:
I’ll gladly wait for my Social Security check and so will my husband. Let them shut down the Government—at least they won’t be able to spend the rest of our money!!
No shiite. What a crappy header.
can we start a countdown clock to October 1?
perhaps a banner on the index page?
Here is the widget from the energyfreedomday.com website for the countdown clock.
<iframe src='http://www.energyfreedomday.com/widget.php' width='263' height='332' frameborder='0'></iframe>
GRAHAM DISPLAYS NEW 'GANG FASHION'.
Freepmail me if you want to join my drill here, drill now/energy independence/”all of the above” ping list. This will be separate from my global warming realist ping list. Fellow skeptics won’t get pinged unless it specifcally deals with global warming otherwise. God bless that vigilant bunch. I’ll be concentrating on the the ban on drilling until Oct 1st which is American Energy Freedom Day when the ban on drilling expires.
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