The Minority Leader Has No Clothes

Las Vegas -- Over the weekend House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that she would call the bluff of the House Republican caucus and give them a chance to vote for a comprehensive energy policy that was "all of the above." She said the package could even include some provisions she personally opposes, like opening up some areas currently protected from offshore oil drilling.

Did John Boehner, the GOP leader, celebrate his victory? Ah, no. Instead, he declared that he was opposed to any procedure that would bring legislation on energy to the House floor quickly, making it clear that doing something, even something symbolic, about our oil crisis is the farthest thing from his mind. Then, to cover his tracks, he went on the attack. His target? The Sierra Club. Boehner claimed that since the Sierra Club had supported Pelosi's decision to bring the full range of energy options to the House floor, this proved that Pelosi was insincere:  "After all, would a liberal, anti-American energy organization applaud legislation that would make a real difference by producing more American energy and helping bring down prices at the pump? Of course not..." 

The House Republican leadership is also calling such provisions as renewable energy incentives and the repeal of giveaways to the oil industry "poison pills." Boehner's language is so over-the-top hysterical that one can only conclude that the Speaker Pelosi's decision to follow Senator John McCain's advice and make the Congress come back and vote was a very shrewd move indeed.

Of course this begs the biggest question this week -- will Senator John McCain follow his own advice and come back from his extended (six-month) vacation from the job he is paid to do -- serve as a Senator from Arizona -- and start voting again?

McCain is so frightened of the truth (which is that he has ducked votes for renewable power eight times and that on several occasions his failure to vote killed renewable energy bills) that he's lying about it. Interviewed at the Aspen Institute, McCain claimed: "I have a long record of that support of alternate energy. … I’ve always been for all of those and I have not missed any crucial vote."

This is, of course, a blatant untruth, and McCain knows it -- just as he knows that he has missed votes even when he was in Washington and available. Here's a list.

But when will the mainstream media start calling Boehner and McCain on their lies and smears? That's the question voters should be asking.