GOP rallies around energy issue and drilling

The talk this election season has been the resurgence of the Democratic Party, but it's clear that Republicans feel they have an issue to hammer Democrats with. In the next couple of days, Rochester will be getting a double-barreled blast of a campaign theme that Republican leaders believe can yield them votes in November. The focus will be on energy in the age of $4-a-gallon gasoline. On Wednesday, Sen. Norm Coleman will be touring Midwest Specialized Transportation in Rochester and touting his plan to address skyrocketing energy prices. Nuclear energy and clean coal are two major components of his plan, but so would opening up the Outer Continental Shelf to oil and gas exploration outside of Florida.
"Minnesota families are hurting at the grocery store and at the gas pump, and the key to relieving this pain is to end our nation's dangerous reliance on foreign oil," Coleman said in a press statement. "To achieve this, we must take advantage of the domestic energy resources we have at home, while diversifying our energy portfolio to include renewable energy resources such as wind and biofuels.
Brian Davis will take up a similar theme on Thursday when he and Rep. Tom Cole, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, hold a press conference at the Olmsted County Republican headquarters. Drilling in ANWR and the Outer Continential Shelf have been the centerpiece of Davis' campaign bid. Davis, a Mayo Clinic physician, is challenging U.S. Tim Walz, a Mankato Democrat, for his seat, but Davis must first get past a primary challenge by state Sen. Dick Day.

Comments

[L D Nelson]

It is interesting that Senator Coleman did not mention energy conservation, lowering speed limits on highways to 55 mph, increasing CAFE standards and other measures that would have a more immediate impact on what consumers pay for energy.

Why aren't our political leaders talking more about conservation and cutting energy consumption?

[Ollie Ox]

The Paleocon Strikes blog is claiming that this information about the location of the press conference is not correct.

Can you clarify? Perhaps posting the original press advisory/ press release here in the comments?

[OdaSilva]

1530 Greenview Drive SW is the address of an office building. There are several business located there.

[Ollie Ox]

Isn't the Olmsted County Republican office one of them? Why else would a Republican press conference be held at this address?

[OdaSilva]

Inform yourself. There was a Walz spy there. Don't you guys coordinate this stuff? If not you should. You wouldn't look so ignorant then. The press conference was held across the street from a gas station in the area. Also, Davis leases his own office in the building.

See? Now you've learned something.

[Ollie Ox]

Perhaps you should take your gripe about the wording about the location with the Post Bulletin.

Here it is (just as it appears in the post above that we're commenting about):

"Brian Davis will take up a similar theme on Thursday when he and Rep. Tom Cole, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, hold a press conference at the Olmsted County Republican headquarters."

Now, why would the paper report that?

Perhaps *you* need to coordinate your attacks better with the Davis campaign. After all, Doctor Davis knows first hand from our email correspondence that I don't work for Congressman Walz or for his campaign. When Davis supporters, such as yourself, keep implying something that he knows not to be true, your foolishness makes your candidate look bad. One would think he'd want to establish as honest an ethos for his campaign as he could.