The sucking sound of gas price politics

Washington Times Editorial:

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist co-authored a letter to President Bush Monday from Iowa. In the letter, which was also signed by House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Mr. Frist unbecomingly begs Mr. Bush to sic the attorney general and the Federal Trade Commission upon every level of the oil industry.
In a letter that could have been written by Ted Kennedy, Messrs. Frist and Hastert beseeched the president to instruct the Justice Department and the FTC to "investigate any potential collusion, price-fixing or gouging in the sale or distribution of gasoline, petroleum distillates or ethanol in wholesale and retail markets." We further request, they continued, "that scrutiny be directed to refining; the transportation of fuel by pipelines, marine vessels and trucks; storage and marketing activities; and retail practices."
In perhaps the most comical request of all, these two Republican leaders want the FTC to "examine whether spot shortages of gasoline are the result of illegal efforts to manipulate prices." Because the spot shortages that are now afflicting the East Coast and Texas (and which are expected to worsen next month) are the direct result of last year's energy bill, which effectively banned the MTBE fuel additive by early next month, perhaps the FTC should begin its investigation of spot shortages by deposing the House speaker and the Senate majority leader.
These FTC investigations first became an American ritual in 1973 and 1974, when similarly conspiracy-minded lawmakers insisted that Big Oil's tankers were waiting offshore for the price to rise before coming into port. Every time the price of gasoline has soared, Democratic politicians have reflexively pointed their fingers at Big Oil. We expected more from Messrs. Frist and Hastert.
Last week the market-determined price of oil jumped past the $75-per-barrel level on the New York Mercantile Exchange....

Like global warming being caused by the sun somethings are so obvious that studies are just done to confirm the obvious. Want to bet that the study confirms that rising gas prices are caused by the rising cost of oil? And, we already know why oil prices are going up because there are more buyers of oil than ever. We also know that Democrats and watermelon envioromentalist have done their best to restrict domestic supplies by opposing drilling in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico. Now if the study were to wind up blaming the watermelons, then it would be worth the demogogery. By watermelons I am talking about the green on the outside red on the inside variety, who want to use "enviromental concerns" as an excuse to implement their control freak agenda on the world.