Conservative Clarifies: "All Of The Above" Means "All The Drilling We Want"

In the latest edition of "The Week in Blog" over at bloggingheads.tv [1], the Heritage Foundation's Conn Carroll and I talked about the conservative blog reaction to the "Gang of 10" compromise, which would allow some drilling off the southeast coast in exchange for the end of subsidies to Big Oil and renewed investment in clean energy.

While conservatives have been shrouding their support for coastal drilling in the cloaked sound bite, "All of the Above," I had noted last week that for conservatives, "that 'All of the Above' list seems to sputter out for conservatives when it gets to renewable energy." [2]

But Conn clarified to me that for conservatives, "All of the Above," just means "all" of the drilling they want. He said "any bill" that does not open up every inch of American coastline and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, is not "all." Watch the segment below.

Of course, this only furthers the point. For conservatives, "all of the above" is not about having a comprehensive energy policy that achieves energy independence and creates affordable energy options to oil. It's about getting Big Oil "all" that they want.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi is now embracing the outlines of the Senate "Gang of 10" proposal [3], saying the House would consider a bill that would allow "opening portions of the Outer Continental Shelf for drilling, with appropriate safeguards, and without taxpayer subsidies to Big Oil."

And yet, in response to the compromise, the House Minority Leader John Boehner (who was golfing while his conservative colleagues railed against Pelosi [4] for keeping to the House recess schedule) lambasted it. [3]

So agree [5] or disagree [6] with the substance of the compromise.

But if congressional conservatives continue their temper tantrum in the face of it, calling the conservative bluff is less likely to actually lead to drilling than it is to expose how deep conservatives are in Big Oil's pocket.