The GOP's energy revolution was not televised

Imagine this scene: Haggard but resolute Republican House members sit down on the House floor and dare House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to send in the Capitol cops to drag them out. Pelosi huffs and puffs, but then decides she and her $4-per-gallon gas loving Democrats would face an unmitigated pr disaster if she did.

That frees the House GOP rebellion to light kerosene lamps, send in video cameras and laptops so Members can start broadcasting and blogging from the House floor, challenging the Democrats to high-tail it back to Washington and have a vote on opening up America's vast untapped oil and gas resources in the Outer Continental Shelf and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The media, especially the cable operations, couldn't resist covering the hundreds of GOP staffers and tourists in the galleries and outside the House chamber cheering on the rebelling. Over and over, House GOPers repeat their challenge - "Drill here, drill now, tell the Sheiks to shove it."

After three days of non-stop humiliation on the tv news screens and across the Internet, Pelosi concedes and calls the House back into session. The legislative ban on drilling in the OTS and ANWR is lifted, with only the diehard  far-left loonies among the Democratic caucus holding out in sullen opposition.

The GOP, including the McCain campaign, would have been electrified and invigorated as it has not been in decades, and all previous political bets about the outcome in November would be off.

But it didn't happen that way today because the Republicans backed off just at the moment when they had a golden opportunity.

UPDATE:

Yes, the House GOPers scored an unexpected coup today and they got loads of beneficial coverage in the media and across the blogosphere for one day. But how long will this day be remembered? After Labor Day, it will likely be little more than a fond memory for those who were there.

But this could have been so much bigger. The Democrats are forewarned now and likely will go out of their way to preclude any similar opportunities in September.

But even beyond that consideration, the fundamental reason the GOPers should have stayed on the House floor today was to vividly demonstrate to their rank and file beyond the Beltway that this time they mean business and they are not just playing the issue  for temporary gain.

Sooner or later, if they are serious about it, the GOP has got to connect the dots between why Pelosi and company absolutely refuse to allow votes on lifting the drilling ban and their obsession with growing the federal regulatory behemoth  so they can tell the rest of us how to live our lives.

Sure, $4 is too much to pay for gas, but bringing the price down is just one reason for supporting drilling - it's the first crucial step to rolling back three decades of Democrat/trial lawyer/environmental regulation, litigation and bureaucracy.  The price of gas is the marginal, but highly symbolic,  issue. The fundamental issue at stake is whether Republicans really want to strike genuine blows that severly wound and ultimately kill Leviathan.