Free Republic

WASHINGTON - House Majority Leader Hoyer Steny Hoyer (MD) released the following statement today:   “A smattering of House Republicans are engaging in stunts on the House floor in a transparent political effort to manufacture headlines.  Meanwhile, most of their Republican colleagues returned home burdened with trying to explain why they blocked efforts to combat high gas prices.  Republicans voted against expanding drilling in Alaska, against promoting renewable energy, against establishing the first new vehicle efficiency standards in 32 years, against repealing taxpayer subsidies for major oil companies that are making record profits, against cracking down on price gouging, and against...

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:...

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:...

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Obama said McCain is taking a page from the “Bush-Cheney playbook” on energy, saying his only solution is to drill anywhere and everywhere for oil. “That’s what he talked about yesterday, ‘I want to drill here. I want to drill now,’” Obama said, quoting McCain talking in Sturgis, S.D. “I don’t know where he was standing. I think he was in a building somewhere. This plan will not lower prices today; it won’t lower prices during the next administration.”