by Amanda Erickson

After almost a week of ignoring Republican protests, Democratic leaders stepped into the offshore oil drilling fray.

Top Democrats attacked the Republicans' floor protest as mere antics and criticized the GOP for holding up "real" legislation that would create "long-term" change.

Pelosi (D-Calif): "According to the Bush Administration's own Energy Department, if we repealed the offshore drilling ban today, oil and gas production would not begin there until 2017, and the impact on prices before 2030 would be "insignificant." Why do House Republicans keep calling for an action that they know won't solve today's energy problems?"

Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) put out his own statement, calling drilling a "temporary band-aid," and arguing for "visionary" proposals that allow for nuclear and other sustainable energies.

Even Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) weighed in. On a conference call today, he said that Senate Democrats also helped bring down oil prices by introducing a bill to eliminate some speculation in the oil futures market.

by Frank James

For months, members of Congress, especially but not only Democrats, have questioned why the Iraqi government doesn't spend more of its own billions in oil dollars (it has the world's third largest known oil reserves) on its reconstruction, instead relying on billions of U.S. tax dollars.

Senators Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John Warner (R-Va) asked The General Accountability Office to examine the Iraq oil revenue issue and the GAO has come back with an answer.

The thumbnail: from 2005 to 2007, the Iraqis had $96 billion in revenues with $90.2 billion coming from oil revenues. And 2008 was expected to be a good year because of high oil prices, with revenues this year coming in between $73.5 billion and $86.2 billion, again with 90 percent coming from oil.

During the same period the Iraqi government spent $67 billion on its operating expenses, such as government workers' salaries and pensions as well as goods and services. Only one percent went to "maintaining Iraq- and U.S.-funded investments, which includes the maintenance of roads, bridges, vehicles, buildings, water and electricity installations, and weapons."

The Iraqis had a $29.4 billion surplus at the end of December which they kept in Iraqi and U.S. financial institutions. The GAO estimated that It's 2008 surplus would range between $38.2 billion to $50.3 billion.

It's those surpluses that are really driving some U.S. lawmakers crazy. They want the Iraqis to start spending that money so that U.S. taxpayers could stop picking up so much of the reconstruction tab. The GAO says the U.S. has appropriated $48 billion for Iraqi reconstruction and stabilization since 2003, with about 70 percent of those funds having been spent.

Part of the problem is that the Iraqis don't have the capacity to spend their money effectively. As the report says:

U.S. government, coalition, and international officials have identified a number of factors that have affected the Iraqi government's ability to spend more of its revenues on capital investments intended to rebuild its infrastructure. These factors include Iraq's shortage of trained staff, weak procurement and budgeting systems, and violence and sectarian strife. As we have previously reported, the United States has funded, since 2005, activities to help build the capacity of key civilian and security ministries and thereby improve the Iraqi government's ability to execute its budget for capital projects.

by Amanda Erickson

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) took a major swipe at Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) when she compared the House Speaker to infamous French queen, Marie Antoinette.

Like Antoinette, who said starving French peasants should eat cake if they had no bread, Foxx said Pelosi is thumbing her nose at the needs of American who can't afford the cost of gas.

"That's not the kind of answer we expect," she told reporters at a press conference this morning.

This was only the latest in a series of increasingly forceful (and at times, long-winded) attacks on Pelosi for adjourning the House without allowing a vote on energy. In the hours after Pelosi ordered the lights, cameras and microphones off of the House floor Friday, several Republicans delivered speeches calling for a vote on off-shore drilling. They have continued for the past three days.

Today, they even brought in the big guns, in the form of Republican Newt Gingrich, former House Speaker from Georgia. He told reporters that American-generated energy is good for national security and the environment.

by Amanda Erickson

Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) was sitting in his family room Sunday afternoon when his BlackBerry went off. Urgent, it read. Come back in Washington.

Roskam packed up his four children and drove through the night to speak on the darkened House floor Monday morning.

He joined a group of Republicans who, without cameras, microphones and BlackBerries, have returned to DC during the August recess to insist that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) allow a vote on energy legislation that includes offshore oil drilling.

On Friday, Pelosi shut down debate by adjourning the House for the summer.

The protest (or stunt, depending on who you ask), has lasted three days. Leaders pledged to keep going "as long as it takes," or at least until the end of the week.

On Tuesday, 15 Republican lawmakers took to the floor. They told stories about struggling constituents, made fun of France, and offered history lessons in the name of suffering Americans, who they say deserve to "have their voices heard."

Tour groups drifted in and out. But a cadre of committed staffers stayed, offering more than one standing ovation and chants of "vote, vote, vote."

Pelosi has so far stood her ground, pushing the president to release stockpiled oil from the nation's reserve.

by Chris Jones

If Barack Obama wins the presidency, Second City might well find itself the quasi-official White House comedy troupe.

The Obama campaign, and the Obamas themselves, have been enamored of the Chicago-based theater ever since the 2007 mainstage revue "Between Barack and a Hard Place" cast Hillary Clinton as an unloved, hard-nosed pol unable to compete with a charming, chameleonic rival whom even Abraham Lincoln loved to call B.O.

That show, a huge hit, was also notable for the love ballad "Where Was This Al Gore Before?," replete with the memorable rhyming of "Tipper" and "zipper."

Most of the senior staffers of the Obama campaign, including chief strategist David Axelrod, came to the show.

So did Michelle Obama and Maya Soetoro-Ng, Sen. Obama's half-sister. The pair laughed uproariously all night long...

(For the rest, go to the Theater Loop blog by Chris Jones.)

by James Oliphant

From Texas Politics, a blog of the Houston Chronicle:

Rick Noriega brought down by a bad tooth

Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Rick Noriega was temporarily felled Monday by an abcessed tooth, said campaign spokesman Martine Apodaca.

Apodaca said Noriega had to have a small piece of his right back jaw removed to deal with the abcess. He said Noriega does not feel well and may need a day or two to be speaking normally again.

"It's not so much that he's incapacitated as it is he's incomprehensible," Apodaca said.

by Amanda Erickson

When a group of House Republicans decided to continue discussing offshore drilling on the floor of a darkened Congress after the August recess started, they said they were making history.

They're right, according to researcher Anthony Wallis, who works in the House Historian's office.

Wallis, who has been looking into the issue, said that he has not found any examples of members forgoing their summer break to continue debating. The closest anecdote he could find was a noisy sit-in, staged in November 1995 by Democrats who were protesting a government shut-down due to a disagreement between then Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and former President Bill Clinton.

In that case, it worked - the two agreed on an emergency spending bill, and the government was reopened that night.

The House Speaker has occasionally pulled a Nancy Pelosi and ordered the lights and cameras off even if members want to continue speaking. In 1984, the Democratic House Speaker Tip O'Neill ordered C-SPAN to move its cameras around the chamber so that filmers would record how few members were listening to Gingrich attack the Democratic Majority.

by Matthew Hay Brown

The lights have been dimmed and Congress has gone home, but a couple dozen House Republicans continued their floor protest today of what they're calling the "Pelosi shutdown" - the decision by Democrats last week to adjourn for the previously scheduled August recess without voting on opening new areas to drilling.

"What heartens me as I hear the speeches of the men and women gathered around me is that I know in my heart we are speaking and giving voice to the will of the overwhelming majority of the American people who want this Congress to return to Washington, D.C., and give the American people more access to American oil," said Rep. Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican.

"I'm absolutely confident that, if this Congress were brought back to Washington, D.C., and given an opportunity to vote on giving more access to the American people of American oil, that there is a bipartisan majority in the Congress that would pass that measure."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has labeled calls to open more domestic areas for drilling "a hoax." Democrats have pushed Bush to release supply from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and say oil companies should explore the tens of millions of acres on which they already hold drilling leases before they are given new areas are opened up.

"Democrats offered a real solution to high energy prices that would bring immediate relief within 10 days by forcing the President to free our oil from the nation's stockpile," Pelosi said. "The Republicans propose to give away public lands to Big Oil, which will not immediately reduce the price at the pump and save Americans only 2 cents 10 years from now. This Republican hoax is unworthy of the serious debate we must have to reduce the price at the pump and promote energy independence."

Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Texas, speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, to discuss the House's accomplishments on behalf of veterans. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke)

by Frank James

When Speaker Nancy Pelosi mentioned yesterday on "This Week with George Stephanopolous" that she hoped Sen. Barack Obama would consider Rep. Chet Edwards as a potential vice presidential choice, a lot of people undoubtedly asked who? even though Pelosi has been talking up Edwards for weeks.

Edwards, whose district's most famous constituent is Crawford, Tex. resident and POTUS, George Bush, is one blue Democrat who has been able to survive in very red Republican world. His district, for instance, went 70 percent for Bush, 30 percent for Sen. John Kerry in 2004. Edwards won a narrow victory -- 51 percent versus 47 percent over a well-known and financed Republican challenger.

As Pelosi said:

... Chet Edwards, for years, our colleagues have said to him, why don't you run for president? He is an extraordinarily talented person. He is the champion for veterans in the Congress. He has -- under his leadership we have passed, included just on Friday, the biggest increase in funding for veterans' health benefits and other benefits in the history of our country. He's a master of the needs of our military and their families. He understands the issues of nonproliferation. He has been a champion in the Appropriations Committee and the Congress. He's from South Texas. He represents -- or he's from Crawford, Texas -- represents President Bush in the Congress.

Edwards is not one of the conservative Democratic Blue Dogs, but he certainly upholds the Blue Dog spirit, voting often enough with Republicans and not with his more liberal colleagues in the Democratic conference.

Last year, he opposed Rep. John Murtha's efforts to put military-readiness requirements in a supplemental defense-spending bill which helped to kill Murtha's efforts, according to the Almanac of American Politics. And while beforehand he questioned whether the U.S. military surge in Iraq could be successful given the amount of religious violence, he deferred to the commander in chief, the almanac says.

by Frank James

It was hard to not get twisted up in pretzel knots listening to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose explanation on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" about why she hasn't allowed a vote on Republican energy legislation that would ease restrictions on offshore drilling was, to be polite, confusing.

It may have left some in the audience feeling bewildered as a seabird fouled by an oil spill.

Pelosi, a California Democrat, accused Republicans of being monomaniacal on the drilling issue and of suggesting to voters that drilling would immediately lower gas prices. She wasn't going to play along with something that would mislead voters, she asserted.

Here's the problem with that. Anyone who has listened to the debate has heard House Republicans say they are willing to consider a range of options from the use of renewable energy sources to new alternative fuels to conservation so long as they can get a vote on off-shore drilling.

Evidence for this is found in energy legislation introduced by House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio, the American Energy Act which includes the language to encourage conservation and alternative-fuels research though it obviously places the stress on getting drilling opened up on the Outer Continental Shelf of the U.S. coasts.

REP. PELOSI: What we have presented are options that would really make a difference at the pump. Free our oil, Mr. President. We're sitting on 700 million barrels of oil. That would have an immediate effect in 10 days. What our colleagues are talking about is something that won't have an effect for 10 years and it will be two cents at the time. If they want to present something as part of an energy package, we're talking about something. But to single-shoot on something that won't work, and mislead the American people as to thinking it's going to reduce the price at the pump -- I'm just not going to be a party to it.

But then, she seemed to later suggest that she would indeed be a party to that, if only House Republicans are smart enough to push the right parliamentary buttons. Her statement came in response to Stephanopoulos's insistent questioning as to why she didn't permit a vote if her faith in her position was so strong.

REP. PELOSI: They'll have to use their imagination as to how they can get a vote and they may get a vote. But I'm trying to -- we have serious policy issues in our country. The president of the United States has presented this -- but for this our economy would be booming, but for this, gas would cheaper at the pump. It's simply not true. And even the president himself in his statement yesterday and before then has said, there is no quick fix for this by drilling.

So she will allow the American people to be misled, in her view, by Republican legislation that she says only offers the illusion of addressing high gas prices, so long as Republicans are smart enough to figure out how to get their legislation to the floor? That doesn't make a lot of sense, but that's what she appeared to say.

by Frank James

Scores of Republican House members will return to the Hill today, despite Congress being on recess, to engage in legislative guerrilla tactics meant to turn the screws on Speaker Nancy Pelosi who has so far refused to allow a vote on domestic oil drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf and the Arctic Natural Wildlife Refuge.

Republicans took to the House floor on Friday to protest against Pelosi even though the Speaker made sure to turn the cameras and most of the lights off. Their specific complaint was that Pelosi allowed the House to recess without allowing the House to vote on energy legislation.

It was raucous political theater reminiscent of what Republicans did when they were last in the minority in the early 1990s.

With a majority of the public now saying it favors increased domestic drilling for oil, the House GOP finally feels the wind at its back on an issue. It isn't about to let up on Pelosi, whose opposition to a floor vote on drilling is getting increasingly unpopular with voters.

Even Sen. Barack Obama, the all-but-official Democratic nominee, moved away from Pelosi's position last week, a sure sign that the limb Pelosi is on is being sawed away by no less than the leader of her party.

Here's a press release the House Republican leadership issued yesterday.

House Republicans to Resume Floor Protest on American Energy Monday

In an urgent memo sent to GOP Members and staff Saturday ("A Call to Action on American Energy"), Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO) hailed Friday's action, which was led by Reps. Mike Pence (R-IN), Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), Tom Price (R-GA), and others, and encouraged House Republicans to return to the Capitol beginning Monday morning to help keep the historic effort going.

by Amanda Erickson

Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) leads locally.

The freshman lawmaker has focused on district issues since he arrived in Washington after defeating his rival by only 2 percent. But he's also been noticed by his superiors. Roskam was offered a spot on the GOP's Whip Team, and Rep. Eric Cantor (Va.) called him "the kind of legislator that represents the next generation of leaders."

All this according to Roll Call, which profiled the up-and-coming hot shot lawmaker in Friday's paper.

Some of the most memorable portions of the interview:

On lessons from former Republican Rep. Tom Delay: Roskam once went to Delay with an idea from a group that didn't generally vote Republican. "He said, 'Peter, those are not our people. They'll never be our people. We're not going to do anything."

On Republicans and the Illinois Delegation: "2008 is going to be the year to survive," Roskam told Roll Call, because Illinois superstar-turned-likely-Democratic-Presidential nominee Barack Obama will be carrying a lot of districts there.

by Paul West

An adviser to John McCain's campaign sums up 2008 this way: Republicans are "not going to elect dogcatchers, but we may have the presidency."

Pity those Republicans running in the other election, the one in the shadow of the McCain-Obama contest. Their party is in the grip of a full-fledged Bush depression, and there's no sign of turning a corner any time soon.

Deep and prolonged dissatisfaction with President Bush's performance has been amplified by pessimism about a sour national economy and high food and fuel prices. Every opinion survey shows American voters tilting against the GOP and saying Congress should stay in Democratic hands under the next president.

At the moment, this downbeat mood is hitting Republican candidates where it hurts most: in their campaign accounts.

"It is the worst fundraising that I have ever seen," said Paul Wilson, a veteran Republican media consultant. "Candidates who were at $700,000 last time are now at $100,000. Those who should be at $350,000 to $500,000 are at $70,000."

by Mark Silva

Say Barack Obama gets elected president.

Someone would have to fill the seat of the junior senator from Illinois.

Rep,. Jesse Jackson Jr. says he'd take it.

"I wouldn't say no if asked," the Illinois Democrat says.

Well no, he serves as a national co-chairman for Obama's campaign for president. But in the past, Congressional Quarterly notes in its report of Jackson's willingness to rise to the call, he has declined to speculate on an Obama Senate succession scenario.

Several of Jackson's colleagues also have been mentioned as possible successors to Obama, should he win the White House. Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich makes the call, with the power of appointment to an open seat.

Tammy Duckworth, a disabled Iraq war veteran who lost a bid for a House seat in 2006, is ready. Reps. Rahm Emanuel , Jan Schakowsky and Luis V. Gutierrez of Illinois could be candidates. Schakowsky has made it clear that she is interested. Emanuel insists he isn't.

Despite the fact that he is more than 20 years younger than Schakowsky, the 43-year-old Jackson has more seniority in the House. Yet, if appointed to Obama's open Senate seat, he would become the chamber's youngest member.

An Obama presidency would also leave the Senate without an African American member, which may, or may not, figure into Blagojevich's decision, Congressional Quarterly notes.

by Frank James

In the Senate, it nowadays apparently takes a self-appointed, biparitsan "gang" of senators to get past the partisan gridlock. For instance, there was the Gang of 14 group of senators who helped the Senate get beyond an impasse on judicial appointments a few years ago.

Today, a new group of senators calling itself the Gang of Ten, announced that it had arrived at a compromise energy proposal meant to break the partisan logjam that exists on the issue.

The group's members are:

Sens. Kent Conrad (D-ND), Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), John Thune (R-S.D.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga), Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.).

Note that Graham, who is close to Sen. John McCain, the unofficial Republican presidential nominee, is a gangmember. He was also on the Gang of 14. He evidently likes joining these senatorial gangs.

The proposal contained in the Energy Reform Act of 2008 would essentially fund new technologies in order to reduce nation from its reliance on foreign oil. It would partly pay for the spending by reducing some of the oil industry's tax deductions.

The proposal sets as a goal having 85 percent of the nation's auto fleet fueled by something other than oil in 20 years. Reflecting its compromise nature, it also contains conservation and drilling ideas.

The senators, who had a press conference today, said they hoped their proposal could be the starting point for the entire Senate when lawmakers return in a few weeks from their summer recess. At this point, with congressional Democrats and Republicans at loggerheads on the energy issue, anything is probably worth a try.

Here's a lengthy excerpt from a Conrad press release with the proposals key provisions: