GOP Lose Backbone on ANWR

The House appears to be losing their backbone with regard to drilling in the barren Alaska National Wildlife Refuge:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Short of votes and running out of time, House GOP leaders may drop a hotly contested plan to open an Alaskan wilderness area to oil drilling as they try to secure passage of a sweeping budget bill Thursday.

Such a move would be a big setback for President Bush and other advocates of permitting oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which has repeatedly passed the House with bipartisan support when considered as part of broader energy legislation. It's always been dropped in the face of promised filibusters by Senate Democrats.

Now that the ANWR drilling proposal is part of a budget bill immune to Senate filibusters, it is the House that's having difficulty advancing the drilling plan. That's because Democrats oppose the overall budget bill, giving House GOP opponents of drilling in the Arctic great leverage to try and force it out of the bill.

There's no better time than right now to hammer the Donks with this issue. Gas prices still exceed $2.20 per gallon and they can win the war of opinion.

Buck up GOP'ers, we need to start finding more sources and building more refineries.