I still laugh at every episode of “Get Smart.” I never tire of the, obvious as a train at 10 yards, jokes that hit you over and over again. One of the more obvious ones that are repeatedly used, is variations on a situation where the outcome is obvious and assured but the writers cause what should be assured to foul up. After one of those you almost always hear Agent Smart adding the insulting “Missed it by that much,” and his thumb and pointer finger indicating a space of just an 1/8th of an inch.
I’m getting the feeling we have a similar situation lining up for us with the issue of increasing drilling for oil.
A headline in Rollcall confirms what has been suspected for the past few weeks:
Democrats Lack Votes to Extend Drilling Ban
House Democrats appeared ready Wednesday to allow offshore oil drilling nationwide after leaders realized they do not have the votes to extend a drilling moratorium.
While that is great news and is a direct result of the focus that the House Republicans have had on energy during the recess, all the news is not good.
The Democrats, seeing that they are in a political corner, are attempting to yet again bamboozle folks into thinking that they care more about the average citizen than their own pork laden positions:
Under legislation outlined Wednesday afternoon but still under discussion among Democrats, drilling would be allowed 50 to 100 miles offshore nearly everywhere provided that states agree to it. Drilling would be allowed 100 miles or more offshore on both coasts.
States would not receive revenue-sharing from the drilling, which Republicans argue is a necessary component to give coastal states incentives to allow the drilling.
The plan being discussed is similar to the one I took to task here. Basically it keeps drilling outside of 50 miles, keeps a moratorium in place for the Eastern Gulf and still allows the individual states to veto drilling off of their coasts, even outside of the 50 mile limit. While I’m sure the bill will have “Energy Independence” embedded somewhere in the title, the bill as currently laid out would have as much to do with energy independence as I will have on the amount of snow that will fall this winter.
While we may lose the battle in the house, there’s always the filibuster in the Senate right? Um, no, yes, maybe?
The Senate has the Gang of 10 16. For reasons that don’t satisfy me or the folks at the National Review, 8 Republicans have decided to aide and abet the Democrats, giving them cover.
The plan in the Senate is as bad and worse, than that being considered by the House. In addition to the 50 mile limit, the Senate bill would prohibit drilling off the Pacific coast and the Eastern Shore of Florida.
Combining the Democrat’s 51 votes and 8 from the Republicans, it looks like the Senate may be able to squeak past a filibuster with just 1 or 2 more conversions. May! In another RollCall article, John Stanton reports that not everyone within the Republican conference is happy with the Senate gang’s activities:
After weeks of working relatively unmolested, Republican members of the gang found themselves a target of party criticism this week.
According to lawmakers attending the weekly Conference luncheon Tuesday and the Republican Steering Committee’s Wednesday lunch, Members panned the policy provisions as well as the compromise’s potential to cripple the party’s sole advantage in an otherwise brutal campaign cycle.
Sen. Saxby Chambliss (Ga.) pitched the deal at the GOP gathering. One Republican Senator called the confrontation between group members and opponents at the Tuesday lunch "very one-sided."
"Saxby got up and made a presentation, and he got dumped on by a whole bunch of people," the lawmaker said.
In that same article is the notion that nothing will get pass a filibuster in the Senate:
Under Reid’s schedule for next week, the chamber will first vote on a Democratic energy bill that is widely expected to fail. Reid has said he would then like to vote on the group’s proposal, and leadership aides have said Reid has made it clear to his Members that he does not want his party to take any blame for the bipartisan agreement failing. Reid has said he would then like to have a vote on a Republican version, which is also expected to fail.
And that brings us to the most dangerous part of this exercise:
With much of the Democratic caucus likely to vote for the bipartisan deal, Democrats have acknowledged Reid is aiming to corner Republicans into either voting for the bill "” and thus limiting the impact of their energy attacks "” or scuttling it themselves.
All of the hard work done by the House Republicans and by many ordinary citizens who phone, wrote and cajoled their Representatives to get a straight up or down vote on drilling may be undone by the Senate Republicans. If the Senate Republicans aren’t careful, they may either get a bill that provides for no real increase in exploration or worse, get no bill and end up being pointed to as the reason that a bill wasn’t accomplished.
We need the Senate Republicans in the Gang of 1016 to back off their bill and stand for a straight up or down bill. The President, the House Republicans and most importantly, the American people support a straight up and down vote on drilling. Barring that, allow the moratorium to expire and let the Democrats machinate as the attempt to hide it in one of the budget authorizations that are now under a time constraint.
Oh, and lest you think that decreasing gas prices is taking the focus off this issue, the American people understand that increasing our energy production is ever more essential. Especially so in a world where the behaviour or one rogue nation can have serious implications on the cost and availability of oil. The American people now fully understand that oil is not just a pocket book issue, it is also a security issue.
We need to call, write and cajole the eight Republican Senators who are part of the gang of 10 16. If they don’t change their plan I’m afraid that at the end of this session the American People may well be saying “Missed it by that much!”
