When encountering crap such as this from the other side of the partisan divide, I try to put myself in their shoes, or perhaps to envision a situation in which I'm guilty of the same practice and imagine how they might feel.

This time, I can't, though you are certainly welcome to help me through my myopia, if you see it.

The offense comes from Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann's blog, in which she and fellow oil salesman Joe Barton urge the president to open up ANWR and offshore sites to drilling to "...and provide needed revenue to the Treasury to help shoulder the burden the bail-out will place on the American taxpayer."

So now the financial crisis has become a reason to drill? It's not enough that the first parts of their justification, to "... improve our energy security [and] lower energy prices" are spurious, but now they want to take advantage of crisis elsewhere to achieve their dark aims?

It's pretty sleazy to me, though, I must concede it has worked before: People born in Saudi Arabia and living in Afghanistan and Pakistan attacked us on Sept. 11, and Cheney/Bush pounced on Iraq under the "they're all towelheads" doctrine.