As I pointed out earlier, in the first thread on this topic, back in the spring, one of the more revolting aspects of this is that Bush and his apologists are being even more despicable than usual--in that they are not even honest about why they want a bill with drilling in the Refuge now.

They know full well no oil will ever come out of the Refuge til long after Bush is a bad dream. But right now they want to play budget games--and have budgeted $2.5 billion in oil leases in the Refuge.

Anything to protect the sacrosanct tax cuts, which of course primarily benefit his fellow rich parasites.