Haven't we been here before?

From Yahoo!:

"Democratic lawmakers on the U.S. Senate Budget Committee said on Monday they opposed putting in the 2007 budget bill language assuming the government will raise billions of dollars in oil drilling leasing fees from Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge."

The proposed drilling has been an issue that the President has been trying to implement for five years, and for five years it has not worked. The reason? People don't want it. American people don't want it. Many Democrats don't want it. Some Republicans don't want it (from the article: "Last week, 24 House Republicans sent a letter to House Budget Committee chairman Republica Rep. Jim Nussle, urging him to keep Arctic refuge drilling out of the 2007 budget bill"). It is unwanted.

Just a few months ago, the administration attempted to get this language in a defense spending budget, gambling that they could get it through because nobody would want to risk looking the villain by voting against funding the military. That gamble didn't work.

This appears to be an attempt to use a constructive loophole to avoid any filibuster efforts to try to push this using legislation. The reason? Budget proposals aren't open to filibuster.

Perhaps the purpose of the repeated ANWR is to appeal to the Saturday Morning crowd, because it seems to be going the route of the Trix Rabbit - try to sneak by one way, get caught, try again with another disguise...