We'd Do Anything for Love (But We Won't Do That)

Republican gas-price pander disgusts even pander-lovin' American people

Hollywood producers like to say that no one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American people. Hollywood producers, meet Senate Republicans. Their latest gas-price gambit, coordinated by Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) -- a legislator who puts the "less" in "hapless" -- seems to have exceeded even the legendarily high pander threshold of the American people. What they proposed: Sending a $100 check to almost every American, in exchange for permission to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. As soon as word got out, scornful feedback started pouring in. "Do you think we are prostitutes? Do you think you can buy us?" asked callers to one Republican Senate office. "What kind of insult is this?" asked Rush Limbaugh. "Silly," sniffed FOX anchor Brit Hume. "I don't think much about [it]," sneered Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott. "I don't think it's a real answer," said Alaskan Sen. Lisa Murkowski. And those were the Republicans.