Republicans Too Frightened To Vote Against Democratic Oil Speculation Bill

Mitch McConnell is well practiced at operating in the shadows

Not a single Republican-- not even Cornyn (R-TX-$480,100), McConnell (R-KY-$197,150), Landrieu (D-LA-$184,850), or Inhofe (R-OK-$220,350), the worst of the Big Oil's paid-off shills-- dared to vote against a bill meant to rein in the oil speculators who have added as much as $2/gallon to the price of gasoline. McConnell still plans to ambush the bill and kill it off with parliamentary procedures before it becomes law. A sneaky closet queen, McConnell has become adept at working in the shadows and accomplishing his goals when no one else can see. "Republicans may still block a vote on approving the bill unless amendments are added to increase U.S. oil production, such as expanding offshore drilling and developing oil shale fields in the West."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said the legislation was a good first step toward bringing down fuel costs.

"If we did nothing else but pass this speculation bill, the American people would be very, very happy and the markets would be struck quickly and the price of oil would go down," he said.

But Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said the speculation-only bill was "a very little piece" of the solution to the country's energy problems.

Not unrelated was a story in the Politico this morning, GOP Senators Scramble For Lifeboats. Even the most zombie-like of the rubber stamps-- Republicans like Saxby Chambliss and John Cornyn-- have suddenly figured out that they could lose their cushy jobs if they don't start voting in the interests of their homestate voters instead of their corporate campaign contributors. Chambliss went so far as to brag that he had stood up to Cheney when he abandoned the cherished Republican dream of weakening and destroying Medicare.

Republican Senate leaders-- terrified by the prospect of losing five or more seats in November-- have freed their members to vote however they need to vote to get reelected, even if that means bucking the president or the party’s leadership.

On at least four votes over the past month-- Medicare, housing, the GI Bill and the Farm Bill-- Republican leaders haven’t even bothered whipping members to toe the party line or back President Bush’s veto threats. Instead, a GOP leadership aide says leaders have told vulnerable senators that it’s all right to “get well” with voters by siding with Democrats on anything but energy and national security.

It’s unusual for rank-and-file members to get a green light to blow off their party leaders. But these are unusual times for Republicans. They are genuinely worried they could get their clocks cleaned in November. The prevailing attitude: It is better to lose some big votes now than big races in November.

This helps explain why so many Senate Republicans are taking flight from President Bush and their own leaders-- and doing it loudly and proudly.

Shortly after the Medicare vote, the website for Sen. John Cornyn featured news that the Texas Republican-- best known as a Bush loyalist-- had voted to override the president’s veto.

The Texas Medical Association had already run anti-Cornyn TV and radio spots and had withdrawn it's endorsement of the rubber stamp senator. Many in Texas consider his vote to override Bush's veto, to be Rick Noriega's first Senate vote. Republican strategists think that by allowing habitual rubber stamps like Norm Coleman of Minnesota, John Sununu of New Hampshire, Pat Roberts of Kansas, Ted Stevens of Alaska, Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Susan Collins of Maine, Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina and Gordon Smith of Oregon suddenly switch up and start voting with Democrats, the issues they are most terrified of-- unemployment, high gas prices, inflation, the housing crisis (all problems brought on by GOP ideological fanaticism supported by each of these senators for years and years)-- will suddenly be "neutralized." They're in a dream world.