Kerry bashing from the Washington Times

[Mass]

Well, at least the Washington Times knows who is leading this filibuster. I guess there is some solace to find there.


http://washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20051220-094854-4534r.htm

Kerry Democrats demagogue ANWR

TODAY'S EDITORIAL
December 21, 2005

Given his seemingly insatiable appetite for energy, Democratic Sen. John Kerry would hardly seem the ideal candidate to lead his party's ill-advised, counterproductive filibuster against a defense appropriations bill because it includes an amendment authorizing the Interior Department to grant leases for the exploration, development and production of oil and gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Married to a woman who flies him and herself around the country in her private, energy-guzzling Gulfstream II jet visiting their five mansions heated and cooled with increasingly scarce, ever-more-expensive energy resources, Mr. Kerry and his family surely consume far more BTUs than 99.99 percent of America's households he sought to represent as president last year. Nevertheless, there he was, holding a press conference Monday pledging to defeat the defense spending bill because it included the ANWR provision. The filibuster tactic, which Democrats have used in previous years, requires them to muster only 41 votes, rather than a majority.
The timing of Mr. Kerry and the Democrats is horrendous. Accelerating a trend that had begun decades ago, hurricane-affected crude oil production in the United States plunged by nearly 1.4 million barrels per day (more than 25 percent) in October compared to average daily output during the first six months of the year. As a result, U.S. imports of crude oil and petroleum products soared beyond 14 million barrels per day in October. That import level represented nearly 70 percent of total petroleum products supplied, setting an import-dependency record. October petroleum imports were also 60 percent higher than the 8.8 million barrels per day the United States imported in 1995, when President Clinton vetoed legislation authorizing oil and gas exploration in ANWR. Meanwhile, the price of natural gas has been hitting record levels lately, far outstripping rates prevailing as recently as two or three years ago....