Hoyer hedges on McCain as 'bad president'

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By Stephen Dinan

NEWSMAKER INTERVIEW:

DENVER | House Democratic Leader Steny H. Hoyer said Tuesday that Republican John McCain wouldn't necessarily be a bad president, but his problem is he has embraced President Bush's policies.

"I don't know that Senator McCain would be a bad president," Mr. Hoyer told The Washington Times. "But if he pursued, as he says he's going to, the same policies that President Bush has pursued, he would have a bad administration, a bad result."

A continuation of those policies, he said, would mean "an America less economically successful than it ought to be, less job creation than it ought to be, less successful in partnering with our allies around the world."

In a wide-ranging interview at the Democratic convention here, Mr. Hoyer, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, also said he expects his chamber to vote next month on legislation that would take inventory of the nation's oil reserves, an incremental step toward more of the offshore oil drilling that Republicans have been pressing for months.

"I see a vote coming on ensuring that America utilizes its natural resources to a much greater degree," he said.

Democratic leaders have been arguing that more offshore drilling wouldn't help in the near term, and said oil companies should instead focus on drilling in areas where they already hold leases. But according to public polls, two-thirds of Americans favor more oil drilling and Republicans staged a protest on the House floor demanding a vote on drilling.

Mr. Hoyer, in a turnabout from the Democrats' earlier positions, said Congress will look at finding new resources "that are available to us, and combine a responsible way towards developing those resources."

He said he doubts that will include drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which is being pushed by some Republicans, though not Mr. McCain.

"I don't know that ANWR will be part of that inventory, but very frankly, the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, which has as much oil, is right next door to ANWR and is not controversial," he said.