Baby steps for McCain

Sen. John McCain called yesterday for an end to the federal ban on offshore oil drilling, offering an aggressive response to high gasoline prices and immediately drawing the ire of environmental groups that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee has courted for months.

The move is aimed at easing voter anger over rising energy prices by freeing states to open vast stretches of the country's coastline to oil exploration. In a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, nearly 80 percent said soaring prices at the pump are causing them financial hardship, the highest in surveys this decade.

"We must embark on a national mission to eliminate our dependence on foreign oil," McCain told reporters yesterday. In a speech today, he plans to add that "we have untapped oil reserves of at least 21 billion barrels in the United States. But a broad federal moratorium stands in the way of energy exploration and production. . . . It is time for the federal government to lift these restrictions."

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We've scratched our heads bloody over McCain's reluctance to jump on this issue where the "Drill Now" position is a clear boon to the GOP.

Perhaps he will soon visit that pristine vacation tourist hotspot at ANWR, admit he was wrong, and take the sensible position on drilling there.

Baby steps, followed, predictably, by baby talk:

Representatives of several environmental groups criticized him for backing an idea they said would endanger the nation's most environmentally sensitive waters.

"It's disappointing that Senator McCain is clinging to the failed energy policies of the past," said Tiernan Sittenfeld, legislative director for the League of Conservation Voters.

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Democratic Sen. Barack Obama joined the criticism, calling the idea of lifting the ban the wrong answer to out-of-control energy prices. "John McCain's plan to simply drill our way out of our energy crisis is the same misguided approach backed by President Bush that has failed our families for too long and only serves to benefit the big oil companies," Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan said.

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Someone please educate us here: How can a policy NOT in place be characterized as "failed"?

Isn't the no drill, no nuke policy what has truly "failed" America's benighted "families" at the oil spigot?

As for alternative energy sources -- the free market will provide them (this development will enrage insect rights types) far before Government does.

The ethanol fetish has truly been a "failure", driving food prices up as it diverts corn and the foods it helps produce away from the World's dinner table.

And could the disloyal opposition PLEASE end it with this "failed" nonsense.

You'd think people who congratulate themselves on their superior intelligence could make their points without resorting to focus group-tested buzzwords and catchphrases or at least admit that the Great Society "failed" -- miserably, no less -- America's poor?

Our kingdom for a statesman!