Senate GOP enviro-slimeballs try new ANWR tactic; Demos do pander lite

So Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist wants to pass out $100 gas price rebate checks to the general public — in exchange for ANWR drilling? This illustrates just how low they’re willing to stoop.

This is antienvironmental for the attack on ANWR, as well as through encouraging more gasoline usage by subsidizing it. This doubly whammy shows how desperate the GOP is in general, and specifically, how enthralled it is to Big Oil. And that’s the angle Demos need to follow to fight this. And they are.

“It’s designed to protect Big Oil while mistakenly believing that drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will solve America's energy problems,” said Jim Manley, a spokesman for Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada. A price-gouging measure in the GOP package focuses on “mom and pop” operators and not the major oil companies, said Manley.

Problem is, the Democrats aren’t doing a lot better in the pandering game.

Democrats, meanwhile, were assembling their own package of measures, including a proposal offered by Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., for a 60-day suspension of the 18.4 cent federal gasoline tax and the 24-cent a gallon diesel tax. He said it would provide immediate relief of $100 million a day for motorists.

We don’t need to be doing that, either. People need to learn that higher gasoline prices are here to stay.

The sad part is that the Demos, in general, won't even use the two magic words of "Peak Oil."