One More Trunk In The Elephants' Graveyard

A few days ago Senate Republicans pulled off a triumphant coup - approving oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. So you would think that the more conservative House of Representatives would be able to rubber-stamp that and ram it through its side of the Capitol, right?

Guess again, pachyderm breath (via Michelle Malkin):

House leaders late Wednesday abandoned an attempt to push through a hotly contested plan to open an Alaskan wildlife refuge to oil drilling, fearing it would jeopardize approval of a sweeping budget bill Thursday.

They also dropped from the budget document plans to allow states to authorize oil and gas drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts — regions currently under a drilling moratorium.

The actions were a stunning setback for those who have tried for years to open a coastal strip of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, to oil development, and a victory for environmentalists, who have lobbied hard against the drilling provisions. President Bush has made drilling in the Alaska refuge his top energy priority.

The House Rules Committee formalized the change late Wednesday by issuing the terms of the debate when the House takes up the budget package on Thursday.

The decision to drop the ANWR drilling language came after GOP moderates said they would oppose the budget if it was kept in the bill. The offshore drilling provision was also viewed as too contentious and a threat to the bill, especially in the Senate....

GOP leaders, led by House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-IL, also agreed to drop a plan to allow states to waive a 24-year ban on drilling along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and open a contested tract off the Florida Gulf coast to oil drilling. Several Florida Republicans opposed the plan.

Double-M reported this morning that the House 'Pubbies responsible for this latest betrayal call themselves "the "Republican Main Street Partnership," a cabal of RINOs funded by - brace yourselves - George Soros. The same post overflows with an absolutely withering reaction from the GOP grassroots.

The Wall Street Journal counters that, "drilling isn't dead [in the House] yet. [Acting Majority Leader Roy] Blunt never promised to keep ANWR out of the final deficit reduction bill and Joe Barton is hoping to trade ANWR for higher CAFE standards. [h/t AmSpec blog]

ANWR better not be dead. Not with gasoline prices likely to be a hot issue in next year's midterm campaign. Get domestic energy exploration (and refinery construction and nuclear energy expansion) re-started and Republicans can credibly claim to be doing something about overdependence upon imported petroleum. Cave, run away, flee to the tall grass (as well worn as that path is, is there any tall grass left...?) and the Dems will still demagogue gas prices, but GOPers will have no comeback except "humina-humina-humina." Particularly if the Bush's silent boom so much as hiccups.

It's as I said during the Harriet Miers detour and last May after the McCain Mutiny: when elected Republicans shaft their own supporters, those supporters don't show up next Election Day. I'm not advocating it, I'm not championing it, and I'm not demanding it. That's simply what happens. And with an energized - hell, rabid - Democrat base a given, the only way Republicans won't take a beating a year from now is to repate the GOTV efforts of the past two election cycles.

Given the GOP track record in this Congress thus far (on energy alone), I won't envy Karl Rove and his minions their task.

UPDATE: You know how House GOP leaders caved on ANWR in order to save the $54 billion spending cut bill?

Well, you know the old saying: give a RINO an inch, and s/he'll take a mile:

House Republican leaders scuttled a vote Thursday on a $51 billion [note the direction of that figure] budget-cut package in the face of a revolt by moderate lawmakers over cuts to Medicaid, food stamp and student loan programs....

The decision by GOP leaders came despite a big concession to moderates Wednesday, when the leaders dropped provisions to open the Arctic National Refuge to oil and gas exploration, as well as a plan letting states lift a moratorium on oil drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

But moderates countered that the spending cuts in the House budget plan were a separate issue from Arctic drilling. The cuts were too severe, moderates argued, especially when compared with a significantly milder Senate budget plan that passed last week. [emphasis added]

All I can do is shake my head in wonderment. Just when you think Republican "leaders" can't get any more craven and clueless, their collective yellow steak gets even wider. That makes the ANWR cave-in exponentially worse, because its express purpose was to save the spending cut bill to which it was attached. So the RINOs pocketed that concession and then rammed the knife home on the rest of it.

Just imagine: Denny Hastert and the boys have been sliced & diced by the appendix of their own caucus. And the Donks are gleefully capitalizing, as they frankly should be, by going for the hat trick:

Democrats mounted a furious attack on the GOP budget plan for its cuts to social programs and pounded home the message that the overall GOP plan would increase the deficit when coupled with a subsequent tax cut bill. [emphasis added]

Expect that crown jewel to sail overboard next.

D'ya think Tom LeLay's absence from the leadership is making a difference yet?