Day 80 Of Oil Spill Comes and Goes

Day 80 has come and gone in the continuing battle to plug the oil gushing into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico as a result of the Deepwater Horizon explosion. But, don't worry - we have a commission. What do presidents do when there are no other ideas out there? They call together a commission to jawbone it for a while.

From The Wall Street Journal, even the Democrats are not satisfied with the agenda coming from this bunch. The Democrats on the Senate Energy Committee noticed the absence of real experts in the energy field - certainly as it pertains to oil drilling - and came to the conclusion that some action was needed.

Five Democrats on the Senate Energy Committee last week delivered an embarrassing rebuke to the White House, voting with Republicans to have Congress set up an "independent" commission to investigate the BP disaster, bypassing the President's appointees. Offered by Wyoming Republican John Barrasso to broader oil-spill legislation, the amendment that passed the committee on an 15-8 vote charges the Democratic and Republican leaderships with naming a 10-person commission. It emphasizes that appointees should have "technical expertise in offshore oil exploration, health and safety, and environmental protection." Mr. Obama gets to name only the chairman.

And, Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu, made a legitimate point using the example of former President Bush, the favorite bad guy of Team Obama and the Democrat lemmings:

By contrast, the President's seven-member commission contains not a single expert on drilling or petroleum engineering and is instead loaded with such anti-oil and antidrilling activists as Natural Resources Defense Council President Frances Beinecke and former Florida Senator Bob Graham.

"I would suggest to my Democratic friends that if the shoe were on the other foot, and President Bush was the President and he had submitted a list of names like this to us and everyone was related to the defense of oil companies, we would say this is not fair," said Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu. "And I'm saying to my colleagues this is not fair." She was joined by Democrats Tim Johnson (South Dakota), Blanche Lincoln (Arkansas), Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire) and Mark Udall (Colorado).

The Obama administration plans to issue a new ban on deep water oil drilling within a week. Secretary Salazar and President Obama are clueless to the response and the effects of their actions. It looks as though they are simply committed to ending oil drilling in this nation and that is their folly. As a nation we currently import 62% of oil for our domestic consumption. Most of that is from nation's without our best interests at heart.

For 60 years, America has drilled for oil in the Gulf of Mexico. This is the first disaster.