Democrats hope to rally voters around the gas pump

There are plenty of issues for Democrats to run on this election year — the mess in Iraq, the fiscal insanity in Washington, the Republican ethics scandals in Congress, to mention a few. But these kinds of issues don't easily lend themselves to spin and pandering, and they sometimes require Democrats to say what they would do differently. So it comes as no surprise that Democratic candidates for Congress are being urged by party leaders to rally voters around the gas pump.

It's an irresistible issue for politicians who would rather demagogue an issue than solve a problem.

The cast of villains in the Democrats' script includes President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney — both political lapdogs of the oil industry, the big oil companies and market speculators who are making a killing off the surge in oil prices. For Democrats, it's like pinning the tail on the donkey without the blindfold. Early last week, for example, Exxon Mobil Corp. announced that its departing chairman and CEO, Lee Raymond, will walk out the door with a retirement package worth close to $400 million.

Sweet.

According to a New York Times report last week, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee sent out a memo advising House candidates on how to use the issue to their advantage. It recommends that Democratic candidates stage campaign events at gas stations "where you can call for a real commitment to bringing down gas prices and pledge that, as a member of Congress, you will fight for families in your district, not the oil and gas executives for which the Republican Congress has fought so hard."

It may be good politics for Democrats, but it is not an energy policy or a service to the nation. How to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil — not the price of gasoline at the pump — should be at the center of this year's political debate. Both Democrats and Republicans need to speak the truth about the sacrifices that we will have to make as a nation to lessen our dependence on foreign oil.

That debate should start with a bow to reality, not cheap political pandering. The fact is, there's not much we can do about the surging price of oil except use less energy. The world demand for oil is voracious, and tight supplies are vulnerable to disruptions in unstable regions of the world. Another problem is that U.S. refineries are not back at full capacity after last year's hurricane damage on the Gulf Coast. Some are shut down temporarily to add federally mandated clean-air additives to gasoline.