Harry Reid Rants On - Hides His Failed Leadership

Senate Staff Observer: Apparently, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid just can’t help himself. In the process of delivering a speech on energy issues to the Democrat convention in Denver last night, he relied on his old standby of insults and innuendo to attack policies he disagrees with. As he’s done many times in the Senate, Reid spent most of his time attacking oil drilling and President Bush.

Reid first decided to caricature GOP energy proposals by saying, “Senator McCain and the Republicans have centered their answer to our vital energy needs on one solution: off-shore drilling.” Reid apparently hasn’t been paying much attention, since Republicans have been calling for a “find more, use less” approach to energy all summer. Indeed, Senate Republican proposals have featured incentives for plug-in hybrids and clean coal development and GOP leaders have called for extending tax credits for renewable energy without simultaneously raising taxes.

Republicans support developing alternative energy sources, but understand they will not be ready for widespread efficient use overnight. In the meantime, Republicans are saying we should tap domestic oil and natural gas reserves to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and lower prices.

But clearly Reid is more interested in leveling accusations and lobbing insults. He calls the idea of more offshore drilling “snake oil” and ridiculed it as “Doc McCain’s magic off-shore oil elixir.” So is Reid accusing all his fellow Democrats who have expressed their willingness to consider offshore drilling of peddling “snake oil and quackery”? What about the majorities of the American public who want to see more domestic drilling and energy production?

Reid offered little in the way of solutions, but he did make sure to point out that “President Carter warned us about it in the 1970s when he proposed real solutions . . . .” Little surprise that Reid would invoke Carter, since he’s pushed energy bills full of failed ideas right out of the 1970s. Americans are looking for real solutions on energy and gas prices. But what do they get from Harry Reid and the Democrats running Congress? Name-calling and obfuscation. There’s a reason congressional approval ratings are at record lows.

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Tags: Democrat National Convention, DNC, energy policy, failed leadership, GOP, Harry Reid, Republicans, US Senate To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!