As a tactic, appending a controversial piece of legislation to a
larger appropriations bill is a sneaky, but classic, method of
forcing Congressmen to prioritize. Yet any doubts about how
appropriate it is to do so should be alleviated in the ANWR case --
drilling in Alaska is directly related to our activities in the
middle east. So don't mind Sen. Lieberman's speech castigating the
Republicans for disrespecting the "rules" of the Senate -- he's
disrespecting his own hawkish record, and showing us the same stuff
that made him a viable vice-presidential candidate for
Gore.