In a recent puff piece about her in The Politico, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi --fan of longitude (“‘I have always loved longitude,’ Nancy Pelosi says before breaking into laughter. ‘I love latitude; it’s in the stars. But longitude, it’s about time…’”) and future chair of the Democratic Convention in Denver—declares it simply, “I’m trying to save the planet; I’m trying to save the planet.”
     To Pelosi, “saving the planet,” means fighting any Republican attempts to lift the moratorium on offshore oil and gas exploration. “I will not have this debate trivialized by their excuse for their failed policy,” Pelosi says. So there. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/12122.html.
     So let us redefine our terms. By “save” Nancy Pelosi means stopping offshore oil exploration and drilling and by “planet” she means the ritzy beaches of Santa Barbara and vicinity in California which were soiled in an oil spill 35 years ago that helped to launch the careers of politicians like …Nancy Pelosi.

     I’m all for Pelosi sticking to her guns… and sticking it to the Republicans on this issue –and for all the usual ulterior motives. Frankly the GOP hasn’t any other strong issues to save its legislative bacon this fall besides $4 a gallon gasoline. Pelosi and the Democrats are handing this issue to the Republicans on a platter.
     A very strong wave of anti-Bush feeling is about to drastically cut down Republican membership in the House and Senate, making those bodies, perhaps, veto-proof for the Democrats.
     Then along comes the oil price crisis, which the public believes (correctly) can be relieved by a commitment to drill and explore for more oil, the current untapped leases to which the Democrats constantly point having no –-for want of a better word—oil.
     There is oil on our continental shelves. There is oil in the bleak wastes… Sorry. I mean “pristine beauty” of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). And if Nancy Pelosi has anything to say about it, that oil is going to stay there.
     Instead of the massive and immediate relief in oil price futures that the announcement of drilling and exploration would bring, Pelosi and Senator Harry Reid of the Senate offer us –revenge against the speculators.

     You know the speculators, don’t you? They are retired public employees, pension fund holders and former teachers who have invested in funds that trade futures in oil. The U.S. output of oil is dwindling, and the remaining oil supply offers a slim surplus of just 2 million barrels a day worldwide. This (and demand from China and India) makes oil scarcer than it used to be, thus raising the price. The futures buyers pay the price –thus guaranteeing the future supply of oil.
     The public is not exactly thirsting for the blood of former school nurses who are getting by in their Golden Years on earnings from their investments. But Senator Reid refuses to entertain Republican amendments to the anti-speculation bill that would allow drilling. And Nancy Pelosi would see to it such amendments aren’t even heard in the House.
     This makes the Democratic Congress the Bad Guys in this controversy, in which the public supports drilling (74 percent of likely voters support drilling, 18 Percent oppose, 8 percent not sure – Zogby International 26 June, 2008 http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/257903)--but the Democrats are willing to adjourn the Congress for the Summer at the end of this week, rather than to allow drilling.   
     DigitalJournal.com put it aptly: “A vast majority of likely voters, across the political spectrum are in support of offshore drilling, which pits the Democratic leadership against the will of the people.”

     What President Bush should do, if he is smart, is to call Congress back into session in August and let them try –and again fail—to pass energy legislation. Then he and Senator McCain can label this a “do-nothing Congress,” taking a page from Harry Truman’s 1948 playbook. Obama will have to take a stand on the issue –and of course he will not desert his party—then the Republicans will have an issue that might save the White House for them and perhaps cut the losses in Congress.