It’s official: House Democrats have gone insane.  And I don’t mean insane like wearing white shoes after Labor Day or thinking of Jimmy Carter as an elder statesman.  I mean the guy on the corner in the sandwich board sign that reads, “Mr. Snuffleupagus Is The Antichrist!” crazy. 

To recap: gasoline now costs $4 per gallon, principally because America, which once consumed the vast majority of the world’s petroleum, now has to compete for the stuff with the increasingly industrialized, two-billion-footed nations of India and China.  More buyers, higher prices, simple as that.  We’re in the midst of what will almost certainly be a long-term struggle, on par with the Cold War, against hostile regimes who happen to operate in the most oil-rich region in the world.  Every year, we pump billions of petro-profits into some of the most unfriendly hands on earth, and in response to all of this, the Democrat majority of the United States House of Representatives demands that we… wait for it… nationalize our oil refineries?

Seriously!  This is their plan.  Not a secret plan, mind you, but something House Democrats – including their supposedly level-headed leaders – believe is within the boundaries of reasonable political debate in this country.  Look:

Maurice Hinchey: “We should own the refineries.  Then we can control how much gets out into the market.”  By “we,” Mr. Hinchey means, “the government.”  Seriously.  Government takeover of industry, 1930s Italy style. 

This isn’t moderate.  This isn’t even liberal.  This is socialism!  It’s crazy o’clock on Capitol Hill!

Think I’m kidding?  Ask Rep. Maxine Waters’ who at one of the star-chamber hearings with energy executives, said, “Guess what this liberal will be all about!  This liberal will be about socializing, uh… will be about… basically… taking over and the government running all of your companies.”  The government running all of our energy companies?  Based on her performance in that hearing, Maxine Waters can barely manage to run her mouth. 

We have the most innovative and efficient energy industry on earth.  The United States is sitting on more than 10 years worth of oil, in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico, and the Democrats’ response is to… nationalize the energy sector? 

Vulnerable is too gentle a word to describe the Democrats’ position on this issue.  We have the oil.  We have the industry.  We have the technological innovation to tap our reserves without needlessly undermining surrounding eco-systems.  A combination of new exploration, increased production, the creation of nuclear plants, and all the private research into alternative fuels you can shake a stick at will bring down gas prices.  It will bring down electricity and heating bills.  It will solve the problem.

The tin-foil-hat Democrats, on the other hand, want to revisit the failed policies of Marxist and Fascist dictators.  We need to get this crowd back on their meds.  Right away.