John McCain supports Bush's wiretapping, and will also spy on Americans!
It’s getting pretty ugly in the House, no doubt about that. The pro-drilling crowd is throwing “extremist” enviromental issues from twenty years ago in the faces of the anti-drilling crowd. The anti-drilling crowd is hitting the pro-drilling crowd with the “failed policies” bullet point. It is an interesting fight, in that when I say “pro-” or “anti-drilling,” that is not code for “Democrat” or “Republican.” There is a lot of bypartisan sniping going on here, though the balance of the fight is predictably along partisan lines.
The trouble for both Parties, and also the pro and con crowds, is that they are playing a long-ball game over an issue which is very immediate in the minds of Americans. Those who want to drill in ANWAR don’t want to acknowledge the fact that any (highly dubious) benefits from such a plan will not take effect for at least eight years. Those that oppose the ANWAR plan are talking about alternative energies, which while I approve, are going to take a long time to implement and do very little to nothing for those on the lower end of the income scale with late-model cars that cannot accept E85.
On balance, doing my best to keep biases aside, I think that the debate ultimately favours the Dems and the Liberals. The Republican answer to what is obviously a long-term energy crisis is just more of the same; this from the party that has bashed Dems for lacking ideas. The time is as ripe as any in my life for a genuine conversation about alternative energies, and while the Republicans pay lip service to it, they still manage to push it off as a pie-in-the-sky, long-shot alternative while continuing to push for a return to the norm. A very elloquent Rep from New York whose name I failed to catch turned Bush’s “Addicted to Oil” theme from the SOTU on it’s head and spoke brilliantly about the Republicans in terms of junkies looking for one more fix.
Having said all this, the fact remains that politics tend to be a short-term game, and niether side in this debate offered any short-term solutions.? The first party to come up with a specific plan to address the short-term needs of American gasoline consumers and voters will be the one to walk all over thier opponent.
2 Responses to “More ANWAR Fighting in the House”
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Not only is it highly unlikely that drilling in ANWAR would lead to any actual easing of pressure on gas prices (as you point out even it would take years for such fuel to come on the market) it would also deplete what is upposed to be a strategic reserver - i.e. emergency rainy day reserves, and while high gas prices are bad, to me it seems that there could be much more important crises in the future that these reserves should be saved for.
I’m not sure the issue will help the dems much - after all they’ll need to explain the issue to the average american who likely does not understand the long timeline involved in getting anything out ANWAR in any useful amount, while the GOP can just run commericals showing how they’re trying to solve the problem - even if we know it won’t do squat.
You make solid arguments on all fronts. The reserve should not be a short-term football, much though politicians have a tendency to do so. It is especially important not to engage in such behaviour at the expense of ANWAR.
The political trouble presented by the ANWAR drilling idea is a big one for Dems, inasmuch as it seems to be a quick-fix solution when presented by the Republicans. Again, like I said, unless they’re able to come up with something more effective in the short term, they will continue to have these problems. On the other hand, like I said, I don’t believe that the ANWAR project which is already so poorly recieved will gain any traction any time soon.