Oil Rig

Photo by ccgd

As the Republican/BushCo./media drumbeat for leasing drilling everywhere gets louder and louder, and gains traction with Americans frantic for gas price relief, I keep flashing back to October of 2002.  America was still shaken by 9/11, and the White House cynically exploited that fear and uncertainty to stampede 110 Democratic Senators and Representatives into giving Dubya permission to destroy Iraq.

The Democrats didn't want to look weak... but they did.  They didn't want to lose the midterm elections... but they did.  They wanted to look like they were Doing Something... and they did.  But it was the wrong Something.

And what happened in 2004?  The Iraqupation was clearly a disaster, yet many Democrats, including the presidential nominee, couldn't capitalize on it as a campaign issue because they had voted for it.  The Democrats lost ground in Congress, and Kerry lost to a president America was sick of.  They did the wrong thing in 2002, chasing a mirage of short-term political gain, and they paid for it in 2004.  Epic Fail.

Flash-forward back to the present day, and the Republicans are using the same playbook: "OMG, gasoline is over $4 a gallon!  We have to do something incredibly stupid RIGHT NOW that won't fix the problem but will make insanely rich people even richer!  Hurry hurry hurry!  If you're not with us you HATE AMERICA!"

I'm hoping that the Democrats aren't falling for this garbage yet again, but if they are (Inconceivable!), I urge them to remember 2002 and 2004.  If they cave on this, it won't help them one bit in November, and it might even hurt.  And in 2010, when gasoline is over $6 a gallon and ExxonMobil has so much cash that they're using it as a fuel additive, the Democrats won't be able to capitalize on it as a campaign issue because they voted for it.

Of course, the flip side is that if the Democrats do defeat this latest ill-conceived idiocy, they'll need to either bring gas prices down or do a really effective job of explaining why the "Lease Here. Lease Now. Pay About The Same." plan wouldn't work.  Something like this, maybe.  Or a nice simple chart comparing the 30-year miles-per-dollar projections of the Republican all-exploitation plan to the 30-year miles-per-dollar projections of a Democratic plan that emphasizes energy efficiency and alternative energy sources and Not Bombing Iran.

The Democrats can win this without suffering politically, but it is imperative that they get out the message that the Republican plan benefits only oil companies, not car-driving citizens.  It should not be that hard to do, even with the usual media headwind.  As always, the question is whether the Democrats want to make a stand, like they did on Social Security and Medicare, or whether they'll just go along to get along like they did on Iraq and bankruptcy and habeas and torture and FISA.