Majority Party Capitulates

From the WaPO:

House GOP leaders agreed last night to strip plans to permit oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and in the offshore continental shelf from a $54 billion budget-cutting measure, probably securing the votes to pass the bill today.

The move is a blow to President Bush, who has made expanded oil exploration a priority since he took office. Lawmakers said the White House applied pressure yesterday to Republicans to save the drilling provisions, especially in Alaska, even wooing conservative Democrats who have steadfastly opposed the GOP budget package.

I read that and was too upset to blog about it. My stomach felt like I'd eaten a bag of sand rather than a bagel for breakfast, and I was just too furious to do anything more effective than sputter. We are in a war with the people who sell us the oil that fuels our economy. Islamic terrorists, trained and grown under a wahabi Saudi government, are our future for many years to come if we don't do something now. One of the simplest things we could do is wean ourselves from Saudi oil. We need to use a streaming delta of strategies to accomplish this- creating alternate energy sources is one way. In our new home we are not heating with oil, but with radiant floor heating fueled by a corn boiler- we live smack in the midst of acres of corn fields, so we don't even have to transport our corn more than a few yards to get to us. Hybrid cars are another. Exploiting more solar and wind power would be yet another stream to move us away from dependence upon our enemies. Getting the environmentalists off our backs and building decent refineries for the first time in decades and drilling our own bleeping oil for the first time ever would be another stream in this fertile delta which would move us away from dependence upon the very people who wish to destroy us- if we would only do it!

Fortunately, other bloggers are able to speak to this issue, too:


Michelle Malkin has much, much more, and you'll want to read it. The move to drill oil in Alaska was derailed by 22 Republicans calling themselves the Republican Mainstream Partnership. These Republican 'moderates' are funded by the Democrats favorite money-bag, George Soros!

Michelle is urging readers to write their Senators and make their opinions known, and to CC Michelle those emails (and responses, if they get any).

Here's a sampling:
Reader Gregory A.:

Speaker Hastert,
I cannot find words to express my disappointment in your decision to abandon the long-sought ability to explore for oil right here in our own country. The abject cowardice displayed by "Republican" moderates is a clear demonstration of why moderates will never be in the winning column.


Reader Aaron E:
We thought we would see conservative ideals and values expressed through the decisions made, but we have been faced with a consistent stream of "moderate" compromises.

The latest capitulation being removing drilling from ANWR and off our coasts. Why do you expect Republicans to be excited about voting, if the message we get from you, the supposed conservative politicians, is that you do not need us and do not care about our concerns.

The GOP has consistently turned its back on the base: Education bill, Medicare bill, insane spending, ignoring illegal immigration, giving up on more tax cuts, refusing to deal with Social Security, encouraging embryonic stem cell research with tax payer money and now no drilling in ANWR.

Frankly the voters could have a put a Democrat majority in control and gotten those kind of policy decisions. I am beginning to think the only time we can have a truly conservative Republican party is when we have a Democrat in the White House.

Rick S:
Not too long ago she [a single mom who works hard trying to make ends meet] came to my wife in tears, humiliated by the need to borrow money from us; gasoline prices, you see, were high enough to break her meager budget. Thanks to your "leadership", they aren't likely to drop too far, are they?

Reader Mike B.:

Dear Speaker Hastert,
I am absolutely baffled and livid over the GOP cave-in to the wacko environmentalists with the removal of drilling in ANWR and other locations off the American continent!! What makes it ironic is that this spineless decision was done on the same day that the GOP-led Senate is grilling oil executives for perceived price gouging. What is wrong with this picture??!!

Reader Jim F.:

It's ironic that on the day that the United States Senate was busy blaming the oil industry for its own failed policies, the House of Representatives was busy removing all viable options for reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

Reader John W.:

Dear Rep. Hastert:
It was with dismay and disappointment I read this morning that the Republicans have again capitulated to the left wing on the Alaskan oil drilling project.

How are we ever going to become independent of Middle Eastern oil interests if we do not develop our own resources? The Saudi regime is rotten with Wahabbi Islam, exports terrorists and Sharia-promoting money to our shores, and you in Congress do nothing to free us from this unholy alliance...

Please find a backbone and take some action to release us from this Middle Eastern stranglehold. We need to drill for our own oil.

Reader Steve A.:

Dear Mr. Speaker,
After years of fighting the good fight, contributing money to the GOP to help gain control of the House, the Senate and the Executive branches of government how are we conservatives repaid? You punt on drilling in Anwar and bring the big oil companies in and grill them for making, hold on now, PROFITS! Good grief!

These are only excerpts. But wait! There's more! Here's an earlier post:

Reader Christopher T:

...Leadership is not spelled C-A-P-I-T-U-L-A-T-I-O-N, Mr. Speaker.

Unlike most of these commentors I do not believe that this is a case of fearful Republicans 'caving in' because they do not know how to be leaders- they are acting exactly as the politicians in power have always acted- what they do is calculated first and foremost to maintain their position of power and popularity with the MSM, their fellow politicians, and the bubble that is D.C.'s power structure.

I don't think they had any conservative principles to compromise in the first place. Their one abiding principle is basically, "I will be in power, one way or another. I will amass more power unto myself, whatever the cost to people who really don't matter anyway. I am my most important constituent; there are no other constituents before me."

Politicians. Patooey.

P.S. If this story bothers you half as much as it did me, you'll want to read all of Michelle's posts and check out her links. And write or call your demigods in teh Senate to let them know the emphasis ought to be more on the 'dim' part.