Cong. OH-1: Cranley (D) Highlights Oil Votes by Chabot (R)

With oil companies set to announce another round of obscenely high profits and consumers paying record high prices at the pump, now is a good time for Democratic challengers to focus on all that Republican legislators do for their friends and financial supporters in the oil and gas industry. Today's press release from John Cranley (D-Cincinnati) does a great job of that on vulnerable incumbent Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Cincinnati).

Chabot, first elected as a "Contract with America" radical reformer in 1994, then described tax breaks for big oil companies as "corporate welfare that the government can’t afford." My how Chabot's views have changed. In May of this year Chabot voted to give oil companies a free ride to drill in waters owned by the American public (a plan that was defeated). A year ago he was among the negotiators who helped finalize the Bush Energy Bill, which handed $14.5 billion in tax breaks to oil companies.

As Cranley notes, Washington has changed Chabot, helped along by $64,000 in campaign contributions from big oil PACs since his first election, including $1,000 from profit record-breaker Exxon-Mobil in the most recently reported quarter. Something to think about while you're standing at the gas pump, watching the numbers whirl.