ANWR safe... for now

This is a victory for Democrats and moderate Republicans and a blow for the President, who has made ANWR drilling a top priority now that everything else has fallen apart for him. It also shows the extreme disarray that the GOP currently is in.

Granted it is entirely possible when the House and Senate meet to reconcile their bills that ANWR drilling will be reinserted and become an issue once again. But for now, ANWR is safe:

House leaders late Wednesday abandoned an attempt to push through a hotly contested plan to open an Alaskan wildlife refuge to oil drilling, fearing it would jeopardize approval of a sweeping budget bill Thursday.

They also dropped from the budget document plans to allow states to authorize oil and gas drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts - regions currently under a drilling moratorium.

(snip)

Marnie Funk, a spokeswoman for Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said that Domenici considers the ANWR provision, which the Senate approved, "one of the most critical components" in the budget package. "He is committed to coming back to the Senate from the conference with ANWR intact," she said.

It will be interesting to see how the 25 moderate Republicans would react to that. Hopefully they will maintain their current stance. It not, it's a question of how long the floor vote will remain open until Tom DeLay can work his wicked ways.