Angie Craig: “I am going to give the majority leader the benefit of the doubt at this moment--because I should. I am going to say to…”

“I am going to give the majority leader the benefit of the doubt at this moment--because I should. I am going to say to the majority leader at this moment: OK, if that is your decision--and I understand the timing here; I understand we are in the last month to a month and a half of this session of Congress and that national energy policy is truly a national security issue and all Americans now believe that. All the polls show that. It is something the House has dealt with and we should deal with. So I say to Leader Tom Daschle at this moment: If you are going to craft an energy bill in your office and bring it to the floor as the prerogative of leadership, get on with it. Do it now. Don't tell us you are going to do it and then wait 3 or 4 or 5 weeks, knowing that it cannot get done and it cannot get conferenced with the House. That way you have given your people a vote, but you have not faced the issue and you have not put a bill on the President's desk. That is not leadership. That is politics.”