Couldn't resist this one--Fred Barnes has my back...
Written by Paul Zannucci on 11:49 AMIn this time machine article (dated 6-23-08) from the weekly Standard, There's Votes in Them Thar Hills: Drill, McCain, drill, Fred Barnes lays out the argument for more drilling as a political weapon.
Republicans have seized on public anger over $4 per gallon gasoline and are calling for domestic oil production in federal lands and offshore areas now closed to exploration and drilling. Since polls show the public agrees with them, Republicans believe "drilling"--the one-word capsulation of the issue--is their strongest political talking point in 2008. Indeed, it may be their only good domestic issue.
(My less literate article from yesterday is here.)
He then goes on to talk about the difficulties in getting John McCain, who has opposed drilling in ANWR, on board, and how this absense of leadership at the top of the ticket on this issue could doom the movement.
House Republican leaders John Boehner and Roy Blunt have done an extremely effective job of connecting limits on domestic production with high gasoline prices. In the Senate, minority leader Mitch McConnell has jumped on the bandwagon. But congressional Republicans can attract only so much attention.
This is a critical issue for Republicans this election. This, in fact, is the issue that could turn, in my opinion, this election completely around. We have got to support the Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less. campaign and get the 3 millions signatures they are hoping for before the conventions. We have got to pressure the Republicans, and John McCain in particular, to get behind the this and get behind it hard.
Recall the Contract with America from 1994? Then, led by Newt Gingrich, Republicans laid out the legislative promises that laid the foundation for a Republican sweep into congress and the economic boom of the nineties. Now, led by Newt Gingrich, there is a new path set before conservatives--and just when we need it most.
In this one issue, we have a chance to show America what the liberals truly are: maniacally controlling. When we want to build windmills, they worry over the impact on birds. When we want to harness ocean tidal energy, they worry over the impact on fish. When we want to build nuclear plants, they worry about what to do with the waste. When we want to go to biofuels, they worry over the cost of food. The liberals don't really sound as though they want us to have energy at all, do they? Well, in some respects they don't. Energy is yet another part of the divide for them--another category in the have and the have-not list. By fighting energy--via global warming, animal protection, etc--they gain more control over our lives and manage to redistribute wealth via such tools as "Cap and Trade".
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To contact the McCain campaign and let them hear what you think about drilling, go here.
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