“Senator Obama has also said many times that he is against ‘special interests.’ But, like most politicians who say that, he means that he is against other politicians’ special interests. His own special interests are never called special interests. Neither are the environmental extremists who support the Democrats called special interests. But the green zealots who have for decades blocked the country from using oil within our own borders—more oil than in Saudi Arabia, by the way—are also among the special interests with a big voice in the Democratic Party. They are also a major factor in shutting down the democratic voting process—in this case, in the House of Representatives, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi refuses to allow a vote on drilling for oil in places where the green zealots don’t want drilling. The Congressional Democrats could of course vote to continue forbidding drilling in those places. But voters paying $4 a gallon for gas are not likely to agree with the green zealots—and recent polls show that they do not. Rather than lose votes in the November elections by voting with the green zealots, or lose the money that the green zealots contribute to the Democratic Party coffers, Nancy Pelosi simply shut down the House of Representatives, so that there could be no votes, and turned off the lights so that C-SPAN could not broadcast Republicans’ speeches protesting what happened. After all, what is democracy compared to support from the green zealots?” — Thomas Sowell