True North

Tuesday, I participated in a conference call with Rep. Michele Bachmann, who talked about her recent trip to NREL and ANWR. The MOB was well-represented with Mssrs. Aplikowski and Pusateri also participating in the call. The Strib's Kevin Diaz has written an article about the call, too. He's even written about the bizarre moment in the call:

Asked by a reporter whether the "children" in her analogy might be overweight or overfed, she replied that she doesn't think that constituents suffering under skyrocketing gas prices see themselves that way.

I said Tuesday that that moment was utterly bizarre. It isn't a stretch to think that Mr. Ragsdale knows best what the individuals' needs are.

Because I wanted to give credit where credit is due, I contacted Mr. Diaz to thank him for including that episode in his article. Following that, we agreed that both sides have dug in their heals on this issue. I told Mr. Diaz that the part that bothered me most about the gamesmanship was when the DRILL Act was brought up with a closed rule, meaning that the Democrats' leadership wouldn't allow amendments to the bill.

It's one thing when a legislator or a political party digs its heals in. In this instance, I'm comfortable with Republicans digging in their heals. That's because I believe they're right. People have said that Republicans are only taking this position for political purposes but that's easily refuted. As a party, Republicans have consistently been for drilling in ANWR and other known reserves.

This certainly plays to the Republicans' advantage. That said, this shouldn't be a partisan issue. As I've said before, common sense shouldn't a partisan thing. It is because Democrats are utterly beholden to the environmentalist lobby. They refuse to tell the environmentalists when they're wrong.

I'd further suggest that contrasting the differences between R's and D's is precisely what elections should be about.

Kudos to Kevin Diaz for his reporting of the conference call story. I'll praise the Strib when I see the Strib doing good things.

Comments welcome at LFR.