Pelosi Shifts



(image via joejaworsky)

Ah, election season (The Corsair sips a glass of "the fizzy"). Looking to November (AKA, the Presidency and the purple districts), United States Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has signalled shifted her opposition to an offshore drilling vote in the House of Representatives. It is a victory for the Rovian forces who demagogued the issue. Senator Barack Obama had an opportunity to speak to the people -- as he did, almost winning, in Indiana when Hillary Clinton demagogued that "Gas Tax Hoax" -- but he and Pelosi have chosen the easy road. There would be no significant immediate effect on the price of oil, nor would it do anything to reduce our dependence on oil, which is the real culprit. Our dependence on oil has empowered petroauthoritarians and led -- among other things -- to the situation in Georgia as well as Iranian intransigence. Oh yeah, and the price of oil -- and it's effects on the automotive industry (a bedrock of the US economy)-- is large. Still, Pelosi shifts. From TheHill:

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday night dropped her staunch opposition to a vote on offshore oil drilling in the House.

"Republicans, reacting to high gas prices, have demanded a vote on additional oil exploration in the Outer Continental Shelf, where drilling is currently blocked by a moratorium. Until now, Pelosi (D-Calif.) has resisted the idea as a 'hoax.' But in an interview on CNN’s Larry King Live, she indicated that she was open to a vote.

"'They have this thing that says drill offshore in the protected areas,' Pelosi said. “We can do that. We can have a vote on that.”

There is still a window of opportunity here. Allowing a House vote is not the same as immediate offshore drilling. Let's hope that Obama takes the high road and appeals to the better angels of our nature, not cave in to the Rovians, who speak at the level of the lowest-common-denominator.

And look where that has gotten us.