Liberal Talk Radio

I’m pretty bummed about the ANWR vote today. Really bummed, actually. I dropped home for lunch to pick up my passport (no, I’m not moving to Canada… just going down to S. America to visit a friend next month), and I caught the immediate fallout on CNN. I know it’s far from a done deal, but still, it’s depressing.

I think the most depressing thing is that ANWR drilling will eventually pass and environmentalists won’t get anything for it passing. There’s a key piece of “being an opposition party,” to use the phrase that’s in vogue these days. It’s not compromise, but it is horse trading. Democrats have got to realize they can’t win these votes all the time. Sometimes it’s worth acknowledging what chips you have and what chips you don’t and playing your hand accordingly.

What I’m getting at is this: Democrats could have exchanged ANWR drilling for something, ANYTHING, that would have benefitted the environment in the long run. They could have offered to support the drilling in exchange for any one of the following things:

- The U.S. signing onto Kyoto
- raising fuel standards on cars
- development of high-speed rail
- tax incentives for hybrids
- the end of tax incentives for Hummers

But now it’s all moot. ANWR drilling will pass, and an opportunity to advance our Environmental agenda will be lost.

Look, I know compromise can be futile. Especially when Tom DeLay’s running things in the House: he has a way of “excising” all those compromises in committee hearings. Three years ago was the time for the Democrats to be out-and-out obstructionists. They were still out of power then, but not as badly. The backbone they’ve discovered with this Social Security issue may be too little too late.