PRESIDENTS, understandably, are the lightning rods upon which a troubled public focuses its many anxieties. It's been a challenging eight years. President Bush's approval rating stands at 25 percent.
But the American people have been even less impressed by what Democratic majorities have done with Congress under House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
The Democratically controlled Congress has only a 14 percent approval rating in recent polls.
And small wonder, because a Democratic Congress has done precious little.
When the price of gasoline hit $4 a gallon - it will hit that level again - the Democratic majority in the House was so paralyzed by its Left Coast constituencies that it could not bring itself to allow American companies to drill for American oil off the Outer Continental Shelf of the United States.
Ridiculous.
Second District Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito, as usual, was less ideological and more clear-minded.
Had Republicans like Capito had their way, Americans would already be at work in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve and the Outer Continental shelf.
Capito favored the sensible "all of the above" strategy - encouraging drilling and development of unconventional energy sources like solar and wind power.
PRESIDENTS, understandably, are the lightning rods upon which a troubled public focuses its many anxieties. It's been a challenging eight years. President Bush's approval rating stands at 25 percent.
But the American people have been even less impressed by what Democratic majorities have done with Congress under House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
The Democratically controlled Congress has only a 14 percent approval rating in recent polls.
And small wonder, because a Democratic Congress has done precious little.
When the price of gasoline hit $4 a gallon - it will hit that level again - the Democratic majority in the House was so paralyzed by its Left Coast constituencies that it could not bring itself to allow American companies to drill for American oil off the Outer Continental Shelf of the United States.
Ridiculous.
Second District Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito, as usual, was less ideological and more clear-minded.
Had Republicans like Capito had their way, Americans would already be at work in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve and the Outer Continental shelf.
Capito favored the sensible "all of the above" strategy - encouraging drilling and development of unconventional energy sources like solar and wind power.
But energy is just one of the concerns the next House of Representatives will deal with. Taxes are another.
Capito supported tax cuts that not only corrected longstanding abuses, but sparked the economic growth that has benefited American families during this decade.
Had those policies not been in place, Americans would be in an even worse situation in the current credit crisis.
And what of the future?
The Democratic Party, nationally, has fallen into the hands of its Far Left fringe - those who think it is their job to redistribute the income Americans work so hard to earn. Big-government Democrats are the party of tax and tax, spend and spend, elect and elect.
Sending longtime Democratic operative Anne Barth to Congress would strengthen the forces that weaken America.
Retaining Capito, who bucks her party when she thinks it's right, is a vote for level-headedness and careful choices.
Now more than ever, that's what West Virginians need.
