Threatening a filibuster, Republican Sen. Mel Martinez has succeeded in protecting much of Florida's coastline in the Senate's version of the House's offshore drilling bill: Under the proposal announced outside Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's office, drilling would be banned east of the so-called "military mission line," which is about 235 miles west of Tampa Bay, through 2022. In addition, it would be prohibited within 125 miles of Florida's Gulf of Mexico coastline, a buffer zone that would primarily affect the Panhandle's coast west of Fort Walton Beach. . . .Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., who played a key role in negotiating the agreement ..., hailed the proposal. "The agreement today is something that is obviously very important for the state of Florida to protect our shoreline," Martinez said. "It really extends the protection beyond the time that we will, hopefully, be solely dependent on fossil fuel for our energy."
The Republican governor of Florida agreed:
Gov. Jeb Bush praised the Senate proposal and urged members of the Florida congressional delegation "to work closely with the House to forge an agreement on legislation that protects the state's pristine beaches, which is the foundation of our tourism-based economy and our great quality of life."In contrast, there are no reports of George Allen or John Warner fighting for Virginia's coastline - who RK has highlighted as enthusiastic about drilling off Virginia's coasts.
Not so with George Allen or John Warner, and we shouldn't be too surprised given their support for Virginia offshore drilling.
But the contrast between Florida's Republicans and these Virginia's Republicans is striking. Floridians are fortunate to have some modicum of representation for their interests, as most of Virginia's GOP delegation (like Thelma Drake) sells out the Commonwealth's coastline.
Read Jeb Bush's comment again on "protect[ing] the state's pristine beaches, which is the foundation of our tourism-based economy and our great quality of life." Can you imagine those words coming out of George Allen's mouth? Big Oil wouldn't hear of it!
Post your findings in a diary! Looking forward to it.
This problem didn't appear overnight, it won't leave overnight. But if Bill Clinton had done his job when he was in the White House, we would be a lot less dependent today on foreign oil. Instead, he put his finger in the air to see which way the wind was blowing, instead of being a leader.
Great try dogging Thelma's record. The voters in November will see through all that.
The modern conservative movement. Had enough? Vote for Change.
Sure, this compromise gave up some of Florida's coast. But Martinez was willing to fight (along with Democratic Senator Bill Senator) to protect large portions of Florida's coastline.
Bill Nelson?
This is all to be expected. Few Republicans have the courage anymore to stand up to Big Oil or Big Money interests. If they do, they get driven out of office by their own: Rove, Cheney, W., etc. It's a sad state of affairs what our country has come to.
Allen is not going to jeopardize all that Big Oil money for is failed Presidential bid, you can bet that for sure. He's also planning for retirement, when he finally leaves the Senate he'll be able to climb on the board of some Big Oil company or going into lobbying, which is how Republicans reward their party faithful.
Now...in Virginia, the calculation is not so easy. So Thelma Drake supports drilling. The waterfront isn't worth enough to buy Thelma. Its about the money.