Harry Reid lost it with reporters today after their failed attempt to produce a energy bill without legislation that would end a Congressional moratorium on off-shore drilling. Republicans vowed to defeat any bill that did not include this, and they did. Which sent Reid into a bit of a tizzy:
At a “pen and pad” — a more casual, off-camera chat with reporters — Reid attacked and scolded correspondents in attendance, telling them he’s “really disappointed” in how they have been writing his energy plans, which include a bill to reign in speculation in the energy futures markets.
According to two Senate Democratic aides, Reid and other Democratic leaders were particularly stung by an article Thursday in The New York Times. It followed on several other reports that have highlighted Democrats’ attempts to fend off defections from their ranks to GOP-sponsored amendments, measures that would permit new drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf and in the West for oil shale.
~~~Reporters tried to pin Reid down Thursday on the amendment issue.
In the exchange, Reid told one reporter she should “watch the [Senate] floor more often. … You might learn something.”
Another reporter explained she had watched the Senate proceedings and said it was not clear he was … offereing separate amendments, to which Reid asked the reporter if she “spoke English.”
“Turn up your Miracle Ear,” Reid added.
Democrats have become so used to the MSM fawning over everything they do that they don’t know what to do with this. This issue will be a huge loser for them if they do not listen to American people and increase oil production inside our borders, the Republicans know this, and so does the MSM:
Instead of dealing with the issue on the merits, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a staunch opponent of offshore drilling, has simply decreed that she will not allow a drilling vote to take place on the House floor. Why not? “What the president would like to do is to have validation for his failed policy,” she said yesterday when asked that very question. “What we’re saying is, ‘Exhaust other remedies, Mr. President.’ . . . It is the economic life of America’s families, and to suggest that drilling offshore is going to make a difference to them paycheck to paycheck now is a frivolous contention. The president has even admitted that. So what we’re saying is, ‘What can we do that is constructive?’
If there is an explanation buried in there about why that makes offshore drilling off-limits for a vote, we missed it. Ms. Pelosi is correct that drilling is no panacea for the nation’s energy woes. The short-term effect of lifting the moratorium, if there were any, would be minimal. That doesn’t mean the country shouldn’t consider expanded drilling as one of many alternatives. There are legitimate concerns about the environmental impact of such drilling — environmental concerns that, we would note, exist in other regions whose oil Americans are perfectly happy to consume. But have technological improvements made such drilling less risky? Why not have that debate?
When they took the majority, House Democrats proclaimed that “bills should generally come to the floor under a procedure that allows open, full and fair debate consisting of a full amendment process that grants the Minority the right to offer its alternatives.” Why not on drilling?
Senate Republicans want to have that debate. On everything from offshore drilling to nuclear power to plug-in hybrids. The Democrats? They stamp their feet and yell no, no, no!
Mitch McConnell described the Democrats plans for fixing this problem like so:
The Ranking Member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, my good friend from New Mexico, put it this way: He said that in his 37 years of service in the Senate, he has never seen a bigger problem met with a smaller solution. I’d put it this way: Americans are saying the house is on fire, and the Democrat Leadership is showing up at the scene with squirt guns.
Keep it up Dem’s….this issue will definitely come back to bite you in the ass.
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If the demwits were on fire, I wouldnt stop to whizz on them.So the phrase Piss on em doesnt apply here
Not that I’m any kind of expert, but I think the WAPO understates the effect which opening off-shore drilling would have in the near-term. It seems to me that strong indications that oil supplies would be increasing in the future would cause the futures market (Oh, no, not the EVIL speculators!) to start bringing down the price in anticipation of relief. Right now, the futures market is hedging on a worsening situation given the volatility of foreign supplies (can you say IRAN? I thought you could!) and increasing demand (China, etc.) with no relief in sight. The futures market is driven by PERCEPTION. Change the perception and the market can change on a dime. It won’t take years to have an effect.
Curt’s post works hand in hand with mine, Oil prices due to rise again?”, Formerly Known…
Curt expands on the DNC’s stubbornness to focus on everything but a solution. In mine, I present the House version where Pelosi revels in her “power of one” to halt a vote for the GOP “all of the above” energy plan.
Iran does have an influence with threats and rising concern of military activity. But one effect that is definite and will be felt immediately is if MEND follows thru on their promise to destroy Nigeria’s major pipelines of light sweet crude within the next 30 days if they do not receive their extortion money from the govt owned oil company.
Seems we are all working along similar lines today. I was researching my post on the House GOP efforts while Curt was posting on Reid’s obstructionism.
We in Mississippi have a new rep. in congress, only a few weeks. He is already rideing on the coat tails of Harry and Nancy. Last week there was an article on how Travis Childers was going to hole OPEC’s feet to the fire until they pumped more oil. Our son lives in Kuwait, does water well drilling in Iraq. When I told he passed this on to some Kuwait friends at dinner one night. He said they spit laughed all over the table
I didn’t see Dirty Harry Reids fit. Is there anyone from the South on here that can tell me if it was a conniption fit or a Hissie fit? Only Southerners can tell the difference, my granny could tell which in a second. Knowing Harry it was probably a kindergarden temper tantrum.