Thers, at Eschaton:

I can’t help thinking that in some big giant wheels-of-the-gods grindingly exceedingly small fashion, one of the lessons of the current mess in the Gulf is that when you try to make policy based on the politics as opposed to the merits, you always, always, always get bit in the ass. Maybe in the future the Democrats will support some horrible fuckup of a war and come to regret it, and then they’ll learn this lesson forevermore. One can but hope.

Yeah. Part of the problem with Obama coming out in favor of offshore drilling recently is that while it may be politically expedient, it is just a bad idea from a policy perspective.  The reality that Democrats oftentimes (er, always) seem to expect when embracing Republican ideas for perceived political gains is that there is such a thing as a good idea and a bad idea. Some ideas are right. Some ideas are stupid. And there is not often any increased correctness by using the other side’s ideas in pursuit of bipartisan appeal. Most importantly, government policies have real world consequences. This catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico is a direct consequence of energy policies that included off-shore drilling.