Now Who's Bitter? - Ap Wants to Cling to It's Drilling Ban

The bitterness dripping from this AP article is almost palpable:

By H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press Writer – Wed Sep 24, 5:54 pm ET

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WASHINGTON – For Democratic leaders, it's a striking defeat as they agree to allow expanded offshore drilling in waters they once called sacrosanct, giving Republicans a rare victory on energy policy six weeks before the election.

In a matter of months, Republicans turned offshore oil drilling from a non-issue — even one feared as a political liability by many Republicans in Congress — into political gold as anger over high gasoline prices made voters receptive to calls for more domestic energy production.

After vowing to protect a quarter-century ban on drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, Democrats on Wednesday moved through the House a stopgap spending bill that allows the offshore drilling moratorium — approved each year by Congress for the last 26 years — to expire at the end of this month.

"It's a very big step forward," said House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio.

"Democrats have finally recognized the significance of this energy crisis," gloated Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, the No. 2 ranking Republican.

Sensing a Democratic weakness to be further exploited, they vowed to press in the next Congress for more of the GOP energy agenda including a sharing of royalties from offshore drilling with states — a necessary carrot to get states to go along with opening waters off their shores to oil and gas companies.

It was not long ago that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a longtime ardent defender of the drilling bans along each coast including her home state of California, called GOP demands for lifting the federal offshore drilling off moratoria a "hoax" that should be dismissed out of hand.

Admittedly this report was called an "Analysis" so the editorial nature isn't particularly egregious. But you can tell that Mr.Hebert is sore over this and who's side he was on.

Starting with his framing this as a defeat and then going on to describe GOP 'gloating' his contempt is obvious. In this article he spends more time discussing the defeated position of the Democrats whil barely touching on the arguments used to defeat it.

So when the going gets rough blue collar workers may cling to their 'guns and religion' but liberals in the press cling to their crunchy feel-good legislation.