Bush is starting to take the air out of whatever speculative bubble there might have been. I am a bit annoyed by the party line, 'There are no speculators!' but whatever.

On this issue at this time the Republicans are more right than the Democrats, who seem to be relying on research that won't pan out for another 30 years and are beholden to environmental interests that want us to return to the Stone Age. I want to see more drilling and the proceeds from said drilling to build a rail network and research/prizes to alternative energy.

With that said, the Iraq war and Iran sabre-rattling are 100% Republican problems.

Bush had 8 months to be notified about 9/11 -- on the other hand President Gore probably would've taken terrorism a bit more seriously between 1/20 and 9/10. the warnings from Democratic holdovers were ALL ignored and there is NOTHING Republican apologists can say on that issue.

The only caveat is that rank-and-file Republicans seem to be thinking all this drilling will bring back $1.50 gas and SUVs. Maybe I'm reading people's moods wrong and a look over at Free Repbulic will disprove me.

The $1 gas of 1998 was due to the SE Asian crisis that even threw China and South Korea off their tracks and depressed worldwide demand. EL_FABREZ has it about right.

mysha, very interesting find about this SemGroup ... I am not sure how much $$$ it would take to pull a Hunt Brothers on the oil market.

Nemo's Brother: Gwendolyn: Whamdangler: You're, um, happy with the fact that gas at $3.50 would be triple what it was when Bush took office?

I came here to say this very thing. It's still three times more farking expensive than is was a few short years ago.

and doubled since the latest class of Congress has taken session.

Obviously, then, the solution is President Obama dealing with a Republican Congress. Seemed to work well in the 1990s but I still think Obama's earned a couple years of a friendly Congress.