Shrewd:

House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) today issued the following statement in response to an article in today’s Politico that suggests Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has secretly signaled to rank-and-file House Democratic lawmakers that they should feel free to portray themselves publicly as pro-drilling if it helps them politically:
“My message to Democratic lawmakers is this: if you’re really for increased American energy production, then prove it by putting it in writing. Sign the discharge petitions House Republicans are circulating that will force votes on energy legislation Speaker Pelosi refuses to bring to the floor. And sign onto the American Energy Act, our ‘all of the above’ plan to increase conservation, innovation, and American energy production, instead of doing the Speaker’s bidding by voting against bringing it to a vote. If you aren’t willing to put it in writing, you’re fooling no one. You’re siding with the Speaker of the Drill-Nothing Congress and radical special interests that favor higher gas prices, at the expense of energy-strapped American families.”
“This cynical strategy is disgustingly dishonest. Without any real solutions to help Americans who are struggling with record-high gas prices, it appears the Democratic leadership has hit on a new plan: deceive. Deceive the press, deceive its members, and deceive the American people. Democratic members have a ‘pass’ from their leaders to talk about drilling at home, while the liberal Democratic leadership – which is beholden to special interests that want higher gas prices – plays ‘rope-a-dope’ back in Washington, ensuring there is no vote to help the American people before November. It’s cynical, dishonest, and wrong – and it won’t work.”

Allahpundit in HotAir responds swiftly:

I honestly don’t see what Pelosi has to lose by letting a vote come to the floor — or rather, I don’t see how she loses more by letting the vote happen now than by suppressing all attempts and letting the GOP bludgeon the Democrats with this issue all the way to November. If they agree to expand drilling, they can always undo it (at least in part) next year by sneaking the rollback into a more comprehensive energy package. The GOP will scream but the election will be long over and Obama, assuming he wins, will be enjoying a honeymoon period which the Dems can use to blunt Republican criticism. Making a stand now, when this is really the only weapon conservatives have to wield against them, seems stupid, unless the Dems expect the price of oil will drop sufficiently by next year that public pressure for drilling will dissipate and they won’t have to act at all. I’ll leave it to economists to determine whether that’s a reasonable expectation or not, but there are extraordinary yet plausible reasons to believe the price might actually skyrocket. In which case, I guess Pelosi figures they’ll jump off that bridge when they come to i

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Amanda Carpenter is live blogging. Here’s her most recent update:

Lots of fun stuff going on the floor right now. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R.-Tenn.) just wrapped a rabble-rousing speech complete with an empty gas can prop.

The House floor seats, usually reserved for members and staff only, are filled with out of town visitors. It’s really neat to see people settling into the historic digs for a speech on drilling!

Blackburn knows how to work a crowd. At one point she held up the gas can and said “Do you know what this is? It’s an empty gas can. And it’s as empty as the Democratic party!” she said to an outburst of cheers and applause. There was some booing from the upper gallery. GOP staff suspects some of the liberally-leaning think tanks and groups and towns are deploying interns to the Hill to offset the GOP fun.

The GOP-ers are holding another presser at 1pm. I’m going to stay for that and then get back to the Townhall headquarters to prepare for a 3pm appearance on MSNBC.

Spaker Pelosi had to get out of town – book tour ya know. But she still found time to get an interview in with George Stephanapoulos. She was incoherant. Says Frank James:

It was hard to not get twisted up in pretzel knots listening to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose explanation on “This Week with George Stepanopoulos” about why she hasn’t allowed a vote on Republican energy legislation that would ease restrictions on offshore drilling was, to be polite, confusing.

It may have left some in the audience feeling bewildered as a seabird fouled by an oil spill.

Pelosi, a California Democrat, accused Republicans of being monomaniacal on the drilling issue and of suggesting to voters that drilling would immediately lower gas prices. She wasn’t going to play along with something that would mislead voters, she asserted.

Here’s the problem with that. Anyone who has listened to the debate has heard House Republicans say they are willing to consider a range of options from the use of renewable energy sources to new alternative fuels to conservation so long as they can get a vote on off-shore drilling.

Evidence for this is found in energy legislation introduced by House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio, the American Energy Act which includes the language to encourage conservation and alternative-fuels research though it obviously places the stress on getting drilling opened up on the Outer Continental Shelf of the U.S. coasts.

So Pelosi is mischaracterizing House Republican intentions. So goes on further to indicate that the Republicans can get their vote if they use their imagination. Says James:

So she will allow the American people to be misled, in her view, by Republican legislation that she says only offers the illusion of addressing high gas prices, so long as Republicans are smart enough to figure out how to get their legislation to the floor? That doesn’t make a lot of sense, but that’s what she appeared to say.

Pelosi seems to be subtly trying to adjust her position given the pressure she’s coming under from not just Republicans but Democratic House members too as the public has shifted with a majority now favoring more domestic drilling.

On one hand, what kind of leader would she be if she didn’t acknowledge that movement in public opinion? After all, the leader of her party, Sen. Barack Obama, the assumed Democratic presidential nominee, has now opened his mind to off-shore drilling so long as it’s part of comprehensive energy legislation.

But on the other hand, she hails from California where there’s long been a “No way, Jose”, or better yet “No way, San Jose” attitude about off-shore drilling. So she can’t just give up on opposing such drilling without inviting a severe backlash from her constituency.

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Writing in The Corner, Larry Kudlow continues to make his case supply-side economic principles rule the price we pay at the pumps. Kudlow point to another $3 drop in the price of a barrel of oil as evidence. His reasoning is supported by the fact that just talking about increasing the supply of oil has caused prices to drop – again. Says Kudlow:

Isn’t it funny that news reports this morning showing that Sen. Harry Reid will in fact allow a drill, drill, drill amendment to come to the Senate floor seem to have triggered a $3 drop in oil to less than $122 a barrel. Is this a coincidence? I don’t think so. More like cause-and-effect.

Oil traders aren’t stupid. There are a dozen Democrats in the Senate who will vote for drilling, and that means future energy supplies will rise. Coupled with falling oil demand, especially by motorists, that means lower prices. Even unleaded gas futures are now dropping to less than $3 a gallon. Add in a buck for local and state taxes on average, and pump prices will drop to under $4 a gallon.

So I guess those horrible oil speculators are not so horrible anymore. Since President Bush launched his drilling-moratorium offensive oil prices are down almost $30.

But Kudlow goes further and speaks to the potential in a winning issue for John McCain and the republicans in November.

Even in the House, where Nancy Pelosi wants to save the planet, political pressures are building for a series of votes to expand drilling. Republicans are now linking Obama to Pelosi and Reid as the cause of high oil prices and the economic downturn. This is good politics and good economics.

Republicans in congress are not budging on what are at-best half measure stop gaps and it is unlikely any legislation will pass before the August recess. Democrats won’t be able to demagogue here as they have in the past as many of their MSM allies are off the kool-aid about drilling. So McCain and the republicans will have their issue and one which they can easily take to the voters.

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