Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) attacked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) plan to lower gas prices Wednesday, calling her proposal "silly" and "absurd."
"Nobody's going to believe that any of these proposals they're talking about are real," McConnell said on Fox. "That silly proposal to open up 10 percent of the Strategic Reserve is about three and a half days worth of oil."
Pelosi asked President Bush earlier this week to release a "small portion" of the more than 700 million barrels of oil currently being held in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
McConnell, like Bush, favors a lifting of drilling bans offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
"We're sitting on a sea of oil, both onshore and offshore," McConnell said. "We know what to do. We need to go about it."
Pelosi has called the GOP plan to lift drilling bans a "hoax."
"It will neither reduce gas prices nor increase energy independence. It just gives millions more acres to the same companies that are sitting on nearly 68 million acres of public lands and coastal areas," Pelosi said Monday.
House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is clearly relishing the rift between House Republicans and the Bush administration over how to respond to the housing crisis.
In a Tuesday letter, Frank scolded Rep. Spencer Bachus (Ala.), the top Republican on the Financial Services panel, for sending him a letter Monday asking Frank to delay action on a giant housing package moving through Congress.
Instead, Bachus wrote that he favors enactment of just a portion of the legislation, a measure reforming oversight of troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R), recently touted as a leading contender for John McCain's VP nod, listed oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) as a McCain policy in a recent interview with CBSNews.com.
McCain opposes drilling in ANWR, though many in his party have pushed for it as a means to lower gas prices.
In the first minute of the video, Romney lists more drilling--including in ANWR--as something McCain would do to improve the economy.
"John McCain will get us energy independent," Romney said. "With more drilling--offshore, ANWR--with more drilling, with more nuclear power plants, with the use of coal and gas, he will get us energy independent--that' the first thing you've gotta do to get this economy going."
McCain has called for more offshore drilling, nuclear power plants, and natural gas exploration as part of his energy platform.
CBS posted the exclusive interview along with a story that ran yesterday. See the video below:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) linked Tuesday's drop in oil prices to the president's push for more domestic oil drilling.
McConnell, on Fox News on Wednesday, noted that the price of an oil barrel had dropped $8. The price had fallen by about $6 a barrel by the close of Tuesday's markets.
"The new development was the president lifted the executive branch moratorium on offshore drilling the day before," McConnell said.
He repeated President Bush's call on Congress to do its part to lift the drilling ban.
"The American public understands that we're the number three oil producer in the world, that we're sitting on a sea of oil, both onshore and offshore that is locked up and has been locked up for a number of years," he said. "This new majority here in control of Congress ought to understand that the for its 14 percent approval rating is that it's not doing anything serious about the problem."
The rating McConnell referred to comes from Gallup's most recent survey. The rating is the lowest for Congress in the Gallup Poll's history.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) says that President Bush "has committed impeachable offenses" and that if the U.S. had a "just system" Bush "would be impeached."
"I think as a matter of justice that if we had a just system and it weren
Thanks to Google speech recognition technology, Internet users can now search for video clips of candidates using specific words and phrases on YouTube.
Google launched its Elections Video Search gadget yesterday, which users can add to their iGoogle homepages.
Google used speech recognition technology to transcribe candidates' uploaded clips and index them for keywords. The search gadget guides users to parts of each video where candidates say the searched terms, highlighting those segments in the video player's time bar.
The searchable archive includes videos from YouTube's Politicians channels, on which 98 presidential, congressional, and gubernatorial candidates host videos.
Barack Obama says he recognizes the controversial New Yorker cover depicting him dressed a Muslim was satire, but thinks it has "fueled some misconceptions about me."
Brit Hume, host of Fox News's "Special Report," will leave the weeknight newscast at the end of the election season, the New York Times is reporting.
Under Hume, "Special Report" has been the top-rated cable channel's fourth most popular show. Hume has viewed it as a counterweight to the networks' 6 p.m. newscasts that he has perceived as more liberal, Times blogger Brian Stelter wrote.
Barack Obama highlights his work on nuclear proliferation with Republican Sen. Richard Lugar (Ind.) in a new television ad that ties national security to U.S. global leadership.
In the ad, Obama tells voters that nuclear proliferation is the most significant threat to U.S. security. He also tells supporters that the U.S. was once "a beacon of light around the world" and that it must restore its leadership role to work with other nations in reducing the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
"We have to lead the entire world to reduce that threat," Obama says.
Obama promotes his work with Lugar to secure funding for nonproliferation efforts. The two began their push for funding in 2005; it was granted in 2007. Their initiative provided $48 billion for efforts to destroy conventional weapons stockpiles and locate and apprehend weapons of mass destruction.
Today's ad comes after Obama announced cooperation with Lugar on another initiative: the Indiana Republican's bill, introduced today with Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), to triple non-military aid to Pakistan. Obama and Lugar serve together on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where Lugar sits as ranking member. Lugar has endorsed John McCain for president.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pushed back against Republican calls for more domestic offshore drilling by suggesting that Republicans go along with Democratic proposals.
"Republicans now have a little -- cute little button some of them are wearing, 'Find more, use less.' Well, if they're really interested in solving the crisis, I think what they should do is act more and talk less," Reid said.
Democrats are calling on oil companies to drill more in areas where they already have permits to explore. Democrats also want to use more oil from the nation's strategic petroleum reserve and crackdown on oil speculators.
Below is a sign made by Senate Republican with their "Find more, use less" battle cry.
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