Webb: Dems made a mistake by not addressing drilling

Democratic Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia on Tuesday widened a split among Senate Democrats over offshore drilling, saying party leaders shouldn’t “run from that issue.” 

Speaking at a Virginia delegation breakfast in Denver on the second day of the Democratic National Convention, Webb said his colleagues in the Senate should have more directly engaged Republicans in July over the issue.

{mosads}“One of the great mistakes that we made in terms of political strategy before we broke for this latest recess was not taking on the Republican Party when they started talking about offshore drilling,” Webb said.

“I believe that our leadership made a very bad mistake. I don’t think we should run from that issue. I think we should say, ‘Let’s find out what’s out there. Let’s explore.’ Then you can have the debate about whether environmentally it’s worth drilling,” he added.

Jim Manley, a spokesman for Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), rejected the criticism, saying that Republicans never made a serious effort for a drilling vote.

“The fact is, Sen. Reid offered Republicans votes on their own amendments, and they turned him down each and every time,” Manley said.

Webb is among a handful of senators who have staked out a more aggressive stance on offshore oil drilling. In June, for example, he pushed a bill that would allow Virginia to explore for natural gas offshore.

However, he did back a Democratic effort to rein in speculation in the oil futures market, and is not among the so-called Senate “Gang of 10” that has proposed a bipartisan compromise plan that includes limited new drilling off the shores of several Southeastern states and the Gulf of Mexico.

“Sen. Webb has repeatedly said that we need a creative and diversified approach to addressing our nation’s energy crisis. He said again today that all options should be on the table — including offshore exploration,” said Webb spokeswoman Jessica Smith. “He believes we should be in the position of, at very least, assessing our domestic resources.”

Andy Barr contributed to this report.