The Dems aren't AWOL. Congress is on its annual summer/fall recess, one they have taken for over 100 years. What Tom Price and our own Lynn Westmoreland as well as Senator McCain have done in calling for Speaker Pelosi to call Congress back into session is political grandstanding.

First of all the problem didn't happened overnight and can't be fixed in that time either. Even if Congress approved drilling today then it doesn't appear that we will be getting at that oil anytime soon. Seems the oil companies can't get enough equipment. See below!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/business/19drillship.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&hp&oref=slogin

We've had well over 30 years to do something about the energy problem. As an unbiased magazine editor said last night on a news show, if we had followed Jimmy Carter's call to action on energy, then we wouldn't be in this mess. Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush have all failed us in that regard.

Mr. Wheeler brings up some very good points, specifically how could Congress recess without addressing the Energy problem? Thanks goes out to Saxby Chambliss and Jonny Isakson for forming the Gang of 10 to keep this on the table.
However Mr. Wheeler needs ask some other questions:
1. Why, when it was obvious that energy was going up, did the Republican Congress along with a Republican President, NOT take action to open up offshore drilling?
2. Why, when airlines were going bankrupt, did the Bush administration reject a request for a 4.4 cent per gallon tax holiday as "too expensive," yet saw fit to grant a $4.5 Billion tax cut to oil companies who at the time recording record profits?
3. Why has the administration failed to address high cost of commercial use fuel, which directly addresses cost of goods?
4. Why are the Democrats who only control onl 53% of Congress being blamed for a failed energy policy when the energy policy is proposed by the President?
5. Why did Bush, personal family friends of the Saudi Royal Family, wait until 2008 to ask them to increase oil production?
6. Why did it take an Act of Congress to stop Bush from filling the Strategic Oil Reserves (and action taken by the "do nothing Dems)at a time when there was an oil shortage? Other Presidents released Oil Reserves in order to stabilize prices. Bush did the opposite. Oh to counter the expected reply, according to McCain we can have domestic oil within 1 year (RIGHT!) if we open offshore drilling, which will release us from foreign oil.
7.Congress was under Republican control from 1996 through 2006. Why did they fail to even address alternative energy, nuclear power, oil shale, etc.?
8. Why, after 10 years of a Republican Congress and 6 years of Bush with a Republican Congress, is a Democratic (bare majority) expected to "clean up the mess" within one year, all the time dealing with a hostile administration that has issued 18 of his 19 vetoes since the Democrats took control?

Bottom line is that Republicans are whining about a "do nothing" Congress when in reality they have been dealing with an incredibly hostile President. Fox News and Rush Limbaugh don't exactly give the full story either. Pelosi has publicly stated more than once that drilling will be considered along with a complete package. In the Senate they had a bill to control speculation (a fun little item that Phil Gramm brought us, google the Enron Loophole), but the Repubs would not allow it to come to a vote unless it was amended with a offshore drilling repeal. Speculation is estimated to be $25 or more per barrel the cost of oil. Immediate action that we would feel at the pump, stopped by Repubs who couldn't get their way.
Drilling is actually years out. It certainly needs to be addressed, but immediate action would be a comprehensive bill that would encourage all forms of energy (see Boone Pickens). The Repubs see drilling as some "magic bullet." Not so.
Also, the Dems wonder why the oil companies aren't drilling on the 68 million acres they already lease? I wonder too.
One last point, all our domestic oil production will be offered on the World Market. For example, ANWR was never slated for the U.S. It was slated for Japan and China. I do not want our ecologically sensitive areas drilled so the oil companies can sell $150 per barrel oil to China and India. I want guarantees that the oil will be sold here for a reasonable price to wean us off MidEast oil. Is that "too liberal?"

Since EXXON MOBIL is the largest US firm, this will give you an indication of recent year's profits and taxes paid. Seems that if Congress had a lick of sense, they would keep these guys going 24-7 to keep the tax revenue rolling in -- but, they would have to first have a lick of sense!!

http://seekingalpha.com/article/63131-exxon-s-2007-tax-bill-30-billion