Gas Price Pandering

In Oregon, Kerry Assails Bush on Gas Prices The Massachusetts Democrat seized on reports of escalating gasoline prices to hammer the president's leadership during a speech at a job training center here. Recalling that Bush campaigned in New Hampshire four years ago during a spike in oil prices and promised to lobby the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to increase oil production, Kerry said: "Well I haven't seen any jawboning, have you? All I read about are sweetheart deals with Saudi Arabia." Kerry outlined several steps that he said would help hold down gasoline prices, including diverting oil going into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and said the president has failed to do anything serious to stem the price rise. ... White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Bush is opposed to diverting oil from the petroleum reserve to bring down gasoline prices. He said the economic effects of such a move would be negligible and that the 700 million-barrel reserve should be used only in times of national emergency, when there is a severe disruption of the oil supply.

John Kerry needs to stop using this line of attack -- he's making me agree with Bush. For all the havoc that the Republicans' ties to the oil industry wreaks, Democrats have a frustrating tendency to pander to voters with promises of cheap gas.