Pelosi Encourages Democrats to Lie About Drilling to Save Their Seats

On the energy issue the Democrats are running what amounts to a four-corner stall with Nancy Pelosi as the point guard. She stamps her foot and declares the there will be no new drilling while at the same time encouraging her minions to defy her so they'll look good for the home folks. The end goal - do nothing about energy until the Obamessiah is elected:

California Democrat Nancy Pelosi may be trying to save the planet — but the rank and file in her party increasingly are just trying to save their political hides when it comes to gas prices as Republicans apply more and more rhetorical muscle.

But what looks like intraparty tension on the surface is part of an intentional strategy in which Pelosi takes the heat on energy policy, while behind the scenes she’s encouraging vulnerable Democrats to express their independence if it helps them politically, according to Democratic aides on and off Capitol Hill.

Pelosi’s gambit rests on one big assumption: that Democrats will own Washington after the election and will be able to craft a sweeping energy policy that is heavy on conservation and fuel alternatives while allowing for some new oil drilling. Democrats see no need to make major concessions on energy policy with a party poised to lose seats in both chambers in just three months — even if recess-averse Republicans continue to pound away on the issue.

“The reality is we will have a new president in three months, and what Bush and the Republicans are trying to do amounts to a land grab for the oil companies,” said one senior House Democratic aide involved with party strategy. “I don’t think we have to give in at all pre-election — we have many more options postelection.” ...

Democratic House aides say the energy agenda has been carefully gamed out in strategy sessions, and Pelosi always intended to take heat on gas prices while tacitly encouraging more vulnerable Democrats to publicly disagree with her and show their independence.

Freshman Democrats like Jason Altmire of Pennsylvania and Don Cazayoux of Louisiana have taken her up on the offer.

Altmire has said a drilling vote “will happen,” while Cazayoux, hoping to hang on to his seat in a conservative Baton Rouge-area district, on Friday sent a letter to Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) demanding a vote on more domestic oil exploration.

“There will be a vote,” said Altmire, who faces a rematch with former GOP Rep. Melissa Hart this fall in the Pittsburgh suburbs.

Indeed, Congress must vote before Sept. 30 to renew the annual moratorium; otherwise, it will lapse on its own, giving states the right to decide whether private companies can search for potential drilling sites three miles offshore.

There is a lot of risk in this strategy. For one thing, it's no longer a sure thing that the Obamessiah will win. Secondly, the GOP is actually playing offense on this issue and are trying to keep it out in front of the voters so they'll start blaming the Dems every time they go to the pump.

The president has been asked to call Congress back into session to deal with energy, but decided that it would be better for the congressmen to hear firsthand from their constituents that the home folks are not happy that Dems won't allow us to drill on our own lands. Let's hope they're getting a ear full.

The GOP has a golden opportunity to repeat the success of 1994. In that important election year the GOP nationalized the congressional races by making every race about the same thing - the Contract With America. The presidential election is already going to be a referendum on Barack Obama - you either want him to be president or you don't - and there's no reason why the House races couldn't be turned into a referendum on Nancy Pelosi. Every GOP candidate should reinforce the idea that a vote for a Democrat is a vote to retain Pelosi as Speaker of the House. That idea could pay big dividends in many parts of the country.