Better late than never. Well, some folks think so anyway.

The truth is, last weekend’s program featuring talk radio host Bob Ehrlich was pretty much a yawner. There was a half hour of the latest Republican talking point: “Drill Here, Drill Now. Pay Less – Drill off the Coast of Ocean City or right smack-dab in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay – We Don’t Care” (I made that last part up. But nobody said anything against it, either. Why is it always someone else’s backyard or beach off in the distance that needs to get drilled for oil?).

As best as anyone can figure opening up all this drilling might worth a few pennies off a gallon of gas – in five years. All this time BIG OIL already owns drilling leases over about 68 million acres of American land and they aren’t touching it, for some reason.

One Note of Warning: No one talked about ending the GOP sponsored, imposed and heavily lobbied (see Sen. John McCain’s top campaign advisors)  “Enron Loophole” that allows commodities speculators to ramp up the price of oil. End it now and some experts say the price of oil would drop immediately by 25% to 50%.

We can be thankful that McCain’s not on that bandwagon. Well, not lately. Now McCain’s moving towards more drilling, drilling, drilling and Mr. Ehrlich is happy.

Mr. Ehrlich: “… [Senator McCain] appears to be shifting his position gradually. I’m thankful he’s doing it, by the way.”

I assume it’s also taboo for these fine Republicans to explore (No pun intended.) why Big Oil hasn’t been able to drill off the coast of Florida for the last 8 years. It seems Governor Jeb Bush liked getting elected and being re-elected and his brother George was more than willing to help him. So, no Florida drilling until Brother Jeb is out of office. I guess we’re there.

Oddly enough Floridians don’t like politicians who won’t keep their beaches clean, their tourist trade vibrant and their property values intact. Politicians like current Florida Republican U.S. Senator Mel Martinez:

“…Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., warned fellow senators not to look to the Eastern Gulf as the solution to America's energy woes.

"Martinez noted that Congress voted a year-and-a-half ago to open more than 8 million acres at the far western boundary of the Eastern Gulf.

"That area's reserves are estimated at about 5.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 1.25 billion barrels of oil.

"Although the area has been opened, Martinez said he did not know of any efforts to begin drilling.”

See that. Congress already opened up some drilling. Why not drill what they got? That’s a good question. We got no answers from Mr. Ehrlich or his guest Rep. John Shimkus from the sunny, beach filled tourist Mecca known as Illinois.

Mr. Ehrlich: “We have my former colleague, John Shimkus… one of the terrific people I have met in life…you are a recognized leader…”

It really makes no difference that Rep. Shimkus was also recognized as a member of the House GOP leadership AND Chairman of the House Page Board  who was responsible for helping to cover-up or at least keep a lid on the walking “congressional page sex scandal” we came to know so well as GOP Congressman Mark Foley, another oily piece of Florida slime that nobody wanted around.

Mr. Ehrlich: “Drill now. Drill Here. Pay Less.” 

Correction: Even Sen. John McCain says that’s nuts:

“I don't see an immediate relief, [but] the fact that we are exploiting those reserves would have psychological impact that I think is beneficial."

Pay no attention to the fact that Mr. Ehrlich’s law firm, Womble Carlyle Sandridge and Rice, counts among its many clients some rather BIG OIL.

• ExxonMobil Corporation
• ChevronTexaco Corporation
• Citgo Petroleum Corporation

Citgo? You mean the same Citgo that = Venezuela that = President Hugo Chavez?

If I was a mean-spirited Republican operative and Mr. Ehrlich wasn’t a Republican trying to “keep hope alive” I could write with glee (without being that far off) that Mr. Ehrlich is one of the American lawyers who is bought and pad for by Bush-hating, America-baiting Venezuela President Hugo Chavez.

It’s kind of true that when you hire one lawyer in a law firm, you hire them all.

But I am sure Mr. Ehrlich is not directly involved with Hugo Chavez. However, if anyone wanted to sue Citgo they couldn’t go to Mr. Ehrlich. That would be a conflict of interest.

So that makes Hugo Chavez more like Mr. Ehrlich’s ATM. Clients like Citgo/Chavez pay Womble money. Womble pays Mr. Ehrlich money. It’s not that difficult to understand.

Hey, it wasn’t that boring a show after all.

Until next week…