Unless we take immediate action, some conservative legislators may cave in and give up when it comes to giving the American people a measure of energy independence and relief from high prices at the gas pump.

          Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid just played his trump card, which is the political equivalent of blackmail and extortion.

          Simply put, Reid is telling conservatives in Congress to give up on "drill here, drill now" ... agree to "sham" legislation that will increase your taxes and drive up your cost for gasoline at the pump ... or he'll make sure conservatives take the blame for shutting down the government.

          According to the Capitol Hill newspaper, The Hill:

"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) cautioned Republicans Monday against forcing a government shutdown over expanded oil drilling while noting increased support for bipartisan energy legislation... Republicans are mulling whether to press the offshore oil drilling fight by blocking the funding resolution, which contains the congressional moratorium on such drilling. Reid reminded the GOP that its government shutdown led by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) during the Clinton administration was met with widespread public disapproval."

          Reid went on to self-righteously pontificate:

"We are not interested in any games being played. We simply want to make sure the government is allowed to function. There have been Republicans saying what they want to do is close down the government. I would hope that some of those people have read very recent history where Gingrich tried to do that and it didn't work out well for the Republicans and certainly didn't work out well for this country."

          The only ones playing games here are Harry Reid and his liberal cohorts in Congress.

          This sickening gamesmanship and disgusting political maneuvering beg some rather obvious questions:

          What does a moratorium on drilling have to do with funding the United States government in the first place?

          Why not take the drilling moratorium out of the funding resolution and allow a fair-up-or-down vote on domestic drilling?

          That's why we have our own message for Reid and his liberal allies in Congress who are dead set on raising the price of gasoline and keeping us dependent on foreign oil at the behest of left-wing special interests.

          Harry Reid needs to be told, in no uncertain terms, that holding the American people hostage is not a "game" and the American people are not going to let him get away with it!

          Moreover, our elected leaders (particularly the conservatives in Congress who have bravely championed the call for domestic drilling and lower prices at the pump) need to understand that NO LIBERAL-INSPIRED "COMPROMISE" OR SO-CALLED "COMPREHENSIVE" LEGISLATION WILL BE TOLERATED... PERIOD!

          If Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi and liberals in the House and Senate want to play games and shut the government down over this issue... SO BE IT! The American people will know who is to blame!

          Harry Reid actually had the nerve to issue the following statement:

"It should be clear to all that we are offering Republicans multiple opportunities to vote for increased drilling, which they have chosen to make their marquee legislative priority and campaign issue. We offered votes on drilling before the August recess, and Republicans rejected our offers. This time, I hope Republicans will put their votes where their mouths are to pass comprehensive legislation that includes drilling."

          The statement is outright deceptive!

          What Reid and his liberals cohorts have actually offered are "sham bills" designed to increase our taxes, increase the cost of gasoline at the pump and increase our dependence on foreign oil.

          Here's what House Minority Leader John Boehner had to say:

"Instead of giving the American people the energy bill they expect and deserve, it appears that Democrats will bring up another sham bill loaded up with tax hikes and failed energy policies that will raise gasoline prices further, not lower them. Any bill that puts 80 percent of the Outer Continental Shelf off limits permanently cannot be called an 'all of the above' energy plan, and the American people will not support it. We have three weeks left in this Congress, and it's time for the Democrats who control it to do the right thing and give Americans the energy vote they deserve."

          Of course, Reid has yet to put his latest "sham" on the table, but it is likely to take the form of the so-called "compromise" legislation being offered by the ever-growing "Gang of Ten."

          Here's what The Wall Street Journal wrote about that plan:

"Ask GOP Senate candidate Bob Schaffer what he thinks of the recent 'Gang of 10' Senate energy compromise, and his answer is short and not sweet: 'I'd call it 40% tax increase, 10% energy and 50% snake oil.'"

          The Journal wrote in another piece wrote that; "The Sierra Club couldn't have penned it better."

          And the Institute for Energy Research called the "Gang of Ten" betrayal, as it was originally proposed, a blueprint for economic and electoral disaster and pointed out that this so-called "compromise" legislation:

          severely limits potential production by only granting four coastal states the ability to opt out of energy bans;

          imposes arbitrary 50-mile buffer zones that would exclude a wealth of potential resource deposits (i.e. the Gulf of Mexico's Destin Dome which is some 25 miles offshore) and;

          possibly give the ban the force of permanent law for the first time ever.

          In other words, liberals in Congress are basically telling us that we can drill for all the oil we want as long as we drill where there is NO OIL!

          And now it would appear that some Republicans may actually succumb to Reid's legislative blackmail and vote in favor of "snake oil."

          We can stop that from happening by taking immediate action!