Bush Says Dems to Blame for High Gas Prices

WASHINGTON, June 18, 2008— -- As the presidential election revs into high gear, President Bush drilled the "Democratic-controlled Congress" for opposing White House energy policies, which he said has resulted in the rise of "gas prices to record levels."

"If Congressional leaders leave for the Fourth of July recess without taking action, they will need to explain why $4-a-gallon gasoline is not enough incentive for them to act. And Americans will rightly ask how high oil -- how high gas prices have to rise before the Democratic-controlled Congress will do something about it," Bush said in the Rose Garden.

Bush also inserted himself in the middle of the heated presidential race by reversing a long-held executive position on offshore oil drilling. The president proposed lifting a ban that he has signed annually and was strengthened by his father, former President George H.W. Bush, and extended by former President Clinton until 2012.

Urging Congress to make the first move on the legislative ban, Bush said, "There's also an executive prohibition on exploration in the OCS [Outer Continental Shelf]. When Congress lifts the legislative ban, I will lift the executive prohibition."

Bush and McCain in Energy Embrace

By proposing the policy reversal, Bush in turn, aligned himself with Sen. John McCain, the all but certain Republican nominee, who also changed his tune on offshore drilling earlier this week as gas prices jumped above $4.00 a gallon.

"I believe it is time for the federal government to lift these restrictions and to put our own reserves to use," McCain told a crowd Tuesday in Houston before the president made his announcement today.

The White House press office told reporters that the president has held such views on reversing offshore drilling policy for some time, and he wasn't following McCain on the issue.

McCain, who strikes an awkward balance of distancing himself from the unpopular president both physically and on policy matters, while trying not to alienate those Republicans loyal to the president, did not seem to welcome the White House energy symmetry, and resisted the "third-term Bush" claims from his Democratic opponent Sen. Barack Obama.