A Couple Big Wins

What do you know? You win a couple elections, you stand up as an opposition party, you watch the majority party wither on the vine, and a couple things go right. Nothing to it.

First, ANWR drilling is dead. In the House, no less:

House leaders late Wednesday abandoned an attempt to push through a hotly contested plan to open an Alaskan wildlife refuge to oil drilling, fearing it would jeopardize approval of a sweeping budget bill Thursday.

They also dropped from the budget document plans to allow states to authorize oil and gas drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts - regions currently under a drilling moratorium.

The actions were a stunning setback for those who have tried for years to open a coastal strip of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, to oil development, and a victory for environmentalists, who have lobbied hard against the drilling provisions. President Bush has made drilling in the Alaska refuge his top energy priority.

25 House Republicans stood strong and refused to sign on to the budget bill, a priority, unless ANWR drilling was stripped out of it.

Then, Brownie finally needs to go find another heckuva job:

Former FEMA chief Michael Brown is no longer on the agency's payroll, the Homeland Security Department said Wednesday, ending nearly two months of compensation after he resigned under fire.

Brown stepped down as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency on September 12 in the wake of the government's sluggish reaction to Hurricane Katrina and questions about his own disaster response experience.

He remained on the FEMA payroll until November 2, said Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke.

There's got to be another Arabian Horse Federation he can manage poorly. Pelosi and other House Democrats have been pushing for this and they finally got it.

Opposition parties oppose. The rest takes care of itself. Here's a little more proof.