A while back I ranted about the game of high stakes poker the White House was playing with the energy bill. The impetus was a mid-October letter from Allan Hubbard to Nancy Pelosi.

Hubbard, the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director, National Economic Council, wrote to the Speaker of the House, outlining the "basic framework for an energy bill that would not compel the President's senior advisors to recommend a veto."

Well folks, as Congress moves ever closer to passing a meaningful energy bill — one that includes many items the President opposes — it seems as if the President's lackey is writing letters to Nancy Pelosi once again.

According to the Washington Post:

Efforts by members of Congress to pass an energy bill hit another bump yesterday when the White House suggested that President Bush might veto the bill, but Democratic leaders said they would not alter the package assembled last week after intense negotiating over fuel efficiency standards.

Allan B. Hubbard, director of the National Economic Council, said in a letter yesterday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that the energy package failed to meet criteria he set out in October and that "it appears Congress may intend to produce a bill the President cannot sign."

Who is this guy? And why is an economist in charge of the President's point of view on what is fundamentally an environmental issue.

As I said back in October:

While I don't think Hubbard (or Bush) is bluffing, I do think the administration is hoping that this year's energy bill stalls in Congress, rather than on the President's desk. And that is one of the most cynical examples of political poker that I can recall.

We need leadership. And all we get is politics.

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