Welcome To The Party, Pal

Holy hardball, Batman, I didn't think the National Republican Senatorial Committee had this level of production skill and partisan ruthlessness in them:

Mark Udall - the son of the eminently forgettable Morris Udall, whose claim to fame is that he couldn't beat Jimmy Carter in the 1976 Democrat presidential primaries - is seeking the Colorado senate seat being vacated by the retiring GOPer Wayne Allard.  Mark Udall is also, like his historical footnote of a father, an environmental extremist who has obstructed domestic energy development ever since he's been in the House of Representatives.

All of which means that no matter which way he slices it, his ass is hanging out to the skyrocketing energy prices wind no matter what he does.

Anybody who is surprised by the following story, stand on your head:

Udall, one of the House’s preeminent environmentalists and the Democratic nominee in a closely contested Colorado Senate race, came out in favor of a bipartisan, comprehensive energy plan that would permit additional offshore drilling — a striking departure from his past opposition to such measures.

He also aired a television ad featuring oil workers on a derrick, with Udall saying, “We’ve got to produce our own oil and gas here in our country and keep it here to power America’s economy. …

But Udall — whose Senate campaign has renamed his GOP opponent, Bob Schaffer, “Big Oil Bob” — is certainly one of the least likely proponents of offshore drilling.

His family name is closely tied with the protection of natural resources and conservation, consistent with the approach that he has advocated in the House. In Congress, Udall opposed offshore drilling on numerous occasions, and voted against expanding refinery capacity six times.

And now he's donning a cowboy hat and pretending to be J.R. Ewing.  Which lends Udall all the credibility of nudist running a Men's Warehouse.

You have to love that shot of Udall skulking behind that airport partition.  Nothing else could be more emblematic of the jam the Democrats find themselves in on energy policy, trapped between their greenstremist fundies and a pissed-off public now wise to the whole "save the planet" swindle - and how it is exposing their true cockroach natures for the entire electorate to see.