The Republican Party has long been labeled the party of “no,” because of their almost unified front in opposition to Democrat legislative proposals.  Just yesterday we reported on yet another occasion of that label being applied, when Harry Reid had to throw in the towel on his proposed energy bill.

Reid bemoaned the fact that

It’s a sad day when you can’t find a handful of Republicans to support a bill…

That isn’t the whole story.

As we reported yesterday, Reid was attempting to pass legislation that would purportedly address the ramifications of the Gulf oil spill by providing incentives to make energy efficiency improvements to homes, purchase Chevy Volts as federal fleet vehicles, and require that any home additions include facilities to recharge electric cars.  It also included a removal on the liability cap on companies in the event of another spill, and this is among the language that Republicans, to a person, opposed.  Reid expressed frustration that not one Republican would vote with him.

What he somehow failed to mention was that the Republicans had authored their own legislation, and that two of Reid’s faithful Democrats, including Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu, were going to vote for it.  Reid couldn’t obtain bipartisan support for his bill, and he couldn’t prevent it for the Republican bill – so he put the legislation on the shelf.

“What’s this,” you say?  “The party of no ideas authored ideas of its own?  Whatever did they want to do?”

The alternative Republican bill included provisions to lift the moratorium on deepwater drilling.  It would have established a bipartisan commission, with the power to subpoena, to investigate the spill and develop meaningful reforms and counter the biased group of environmental leftists that make up Obama’s commission.  It would also have provided for revenue sharing for states where offshore drilling is permitted.

The Republican Party is not a party with no ideas, simply bent on resisting the party in power.  They have alternative ideas, such as for an energy bill, they’re just never reported.  Hopefully they will start espousing those ideas directly to the electorate as the November mid-term elections approach.