Congress and The Price Of Gas

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Despite talk of an energy crisis and the need for independence from foreign oil, Congress seems to be in no mood to open more of the country's coastal waters to energy development....,House Votes to Keep Offshore Drilling Ban, H. Joseph Hebert, AP, May 19, 2006

In the Army, cowardice in the face of danger is a court martial offense. In the old days it could get you an appointment with a firing squad or a hangman's noose. Now, we're more sensitive. We acknowledge (witness the Massaoui jury) the wounds of childhood when judging and sentencing people who put us at risk or hurt us. So, let us be sympathetic. Let us think of the wounded, perpetual childhood of a United States Representative before assessing whether or not he or she should be thrown out of office in the next election. Poor babes, suffering the judgment of the people that they're easy to bribe, that they would sell their constituents out for a shopping trip to Hong Kong, that they don't obey their own laws, and that they're more likely to pay attention to a Chinese lobbyist than to a constituent, what can we really say in harsh judgment of these people? That they're idiots? Hey, that's so obvious that it seems cruel to repeat it. That they've taken an essentially treasonous act by risking United States security in refusing to use our own resources? Hey, after a Democrat Vice President traded nuclear secrets for campaign funds, what else is new?

In the never very humble opinion of this writer, we're in a time remarkably similar to when the Republicans picked up the ashes from the Whigs and built a new party, one that intended to represent both the present and future well-being of the republic, not of their campaign budgets or of their list of junkets to Paris and Beijing. It is also this writer's opinion that the constituencies for a new party -- we might call it The Party of the Republic -- are already out there, waiting to be called on. Folks, it's time to stop waiting. Either take back the party of your choice from the merchants who've bought it off, or build a new one. The price of gas from both parties under their current leadership is far higher than what any of us can afford.

Luther