GOP rebels dare to be relevant

Inter Lake editorial

Republicans don't have a majority in the House of Representatives, but that doesn't mean they just have to sit back and be irrelevant.

It looks like they finally figured that out last week when they decided to make a fuss about Democrats leaving for summer vacation without passing, much less debating, energy legislation that would allow for expanded domestic drilling. The GOP "revolution" may turn out to be mostly show, and little action, but it is a "show" of life from the moribund House Republicans that has probably shocked most voters.

Democrats officially adjourned the session the morning of Aug. 1, but a group of Republican lawmakers refused to leave. Despite the lights being turned out and televisions and microphones being turned off, the Republicans stayed and debated amongst themselves.

While Democrats have dismissed the move as nothing more than a tantrum or a political stunt, the rotation of 20 to 30 Republican rebels seems to be a serious effort to address the energy issue. They are sticking around while Democrats are pursuing their five-week vacation.

Montana's lone congressman, Denny Rehberg, flew from Billings to Washington, D.C., this week to join the protest.

"During the few days while I was back in Montana, I heard over and over from Montanans that Congress needs to solve the energy crisis and solve it immediately," Rehberg said in a press release.

The Montana Democratic Party retorted, accusing Rehberg of flying on the taxpayer's dime in order to participate in a "partisan stunt" that "won't make a difference," even according to the Bush White House.

Well, that's because the Bush White House can call on Congress to return, but only the Democrats can set the House agenda.

Now four days into their talk-athon, the GOP is gaining traction in the media and with the public. The Republicans have been winning cheers, not boos, from crowds of curious spectators that have been turning up in the House gallery.

But leading Democrats seem to have a tin ear on this issue.

"This Republican hoax is unworthy of the serious debate we must have to reduce the price at the pump and promote energy independence," Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said in a statement Tuesday.

Problem is, it's the Republicans who have been doggedly pressing for an energy debate, and it was Pelosi who used parliamentary acrobatics to avoid a debate precisely because she didn't want to risk the chance for such legislation to come to a vote.

And why is that? It's because some Democrats have already joined the Republican fold on this issue, and more - facing re-election in risky districts - would be willing to do so if it came to a vote. The Democratic leadership's strategy was simply to avoid the issue until the November elections are over and pursue their own comprehensive energy strategy next year, presumably with larger majorities in the House and Senate.

And that could be a presumptuous pursuit indeed. Republican presidential candidate John McCain has taken up the cause, fully aware that the House of Representatives has a subterranean public approval rating, somewhere below 10 percent.

"Tell 'em to come back and get to work," McCain exhorted at the Sturgis Bike Rally in South Dakota this week. "When I'm president of the United States, I'm not going to let them go on vacation. They're gonna become energy independent."

Taking on Congress as part of a presidential campaign is straight out of "Give 'em Hell" Harry Truman's playbook, when he directly challenged a "do-nothing Congress."

The public is angry and tired of lawmakers who seem to be more interested in political gamesmanship than pursuing actual accomplishments. We're fully aware that GOP lawmakers are also in the mix of poor approval ratings, but some of them at least are now staging an energized protest against politics as usual rather than going on vacation.