Lieberman-Warner is headed for a humiliating defeat thanks to the hard work of Sen. Jim Inhofe. Here’s what Stephen Moore wrote in this morning’s Political Diary:

Environmentalists are stunned that their global warming agenda is in collapse. Senator Harry Reid has all but conceded he lacks the vote for passage in the Senate and that it’s time to move on. Backers of the Warner-Lieberman cap-and-trade bill always knew they would face a veto from President Bush, but they wanted to flex their political muscle and build momentum for 2009. That strategy backfired. The green groups now look as politically intimidating as the skinny kid on the beach who gets sand kicked in his face.

Those groups spent millions advertising and lobbying to push the cap-and-trade bill through the Senate. But it would appear the political consensus on global warming was as exaggerated as the alleged scientific consensus. “With gasoline selling at $4 a gallon, the Democrats picked the worst possible time to bring up cap and trade,” says Dan Clifton, a political analyst for Strategas Research Partners. “This issue is starting to feel like the Hillary health care plan.”

I’ve maintained that Harry Reid has the worst political instincts I’ve ever seen. This verifies that belief. There’s no worse time to propose a monstrous job-killing energy tax increase than when gas is almost $4 a gallon, diesel is almost $5 a gallon and when many important electoral states’ economies rely on coal for powering their factories.

Captain Ed nails that last point in this post:

With Barack Obama already facing an uphill fight in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and so on, they can ill afford to have the party associated with efforts to push the Rust Belt and the Midwest into a painful, years-long recession.

This week, I sent Sen. Coleman several emails to express my opinion on this bill. One of the things that I said about the bill is that its economic repercussions would be devastating but that the political repercussions would be even worse. Even if gas wasn’t at $4 a gallon, this legislation would face an uphill fight. The hill it faces when gas is $4 a gallon would feel like Everest in comparison.

I found Mr. Clifton’s comparing Lieberman-Warner to HillaryCare amusing because we know how that started with promise and ended with House Democrats the minority party for the first time in 40 years.

I said here that Republicans should run on the issue of opening up federal lands and offshore drilling this summer. If they did that, I’d bet that they’d have a successful 2008 election cycle. Going on offense has additional advantages, namely that a good offense is a great to avoid playing defense on this important issue.

Why shouldn’t we insist that the envirowhackos defend their policies? Why shouldn’t we insist that they expain why their idea is the superior idea? It isn’t like they’ve got the better argument. Their idea was defensible in the 1990s when gass was cheap. Bill Clinton was a great spokesman. All he’d do is say the magic words “the environment” and people would accept his irresponsible policies like the stone tablets Moses brought down from the mountaintop.

In truth, Bill Clinton’s putting federal lands offlimits sabotaged our economy. It was predictable.

Now it’s time to kill Lieberman-Warner once and for all. Then it’s time to make the envirowhackos defend their policies in CD after CD. WE’ve got the better end of this issue. Now it’s time to put the envirowhackos’ policies to the electoral test. If we do that, we’ll be fine.

After all, it isn’t like people want another tax increase coupled with higher gas and home heating prices.

Technorati: Cap And Trade, Energy, Bill Clinton, Envirowhackos, Environment, Gas Prices, Tax Increases, Joe Lieberman, John Warner, Harry Reid, Election 2008

Cross-posted at California Conservative