U.S. Representative - Silvestre Reyes

With the American public angry about the skyrocketing cost of gasoline and Democrats offering big, forward-thinking ideas for our energy security, Republicans in Congress yesterday sought to reverse a tide of popular discontent by staging a hydrogen car ride for House Speaker Dennis Hastert -- a ride that intrepid Washington Post journalists discovered ended sooner than one was meant to believe.

Hastert, who appeared to have walked to the station, left in the very fuel-efficient vehicle, apparently headed for his office. But he went only a block or so before he got out and stepped into his pre-positioned gas-guzzling armored SUV to take him back to his office. Alert photographers, suspecting a ploy, had followed the speaker and captured the bait-and-switch.

Unless they plan to improve our energy security by capturing all of the hot air they've been generating recently, we haven't heard anything but catch-up politics on gas prices from President Bush and Republicans in Congress.

Democrats have plans to bring down the cost of gas in the short-run by empowering the FTC to get serious on price gouging (link) and ensure our energy security over the long-run by investing in more energy efficient technology and domestic sources of energy (link).