When will the gas shenanigans stop?

For four hours yesterday, millionaire Congressional candidate Jack Davis bought people gas at a Greece Sunoco. As part of his stunt, he paid $2.70 a gallon out of his own pocket so voters - whoops, drivers - only had to pay $1.50, say media reports.

Evan Dawson's report at 13wham.com quotes Davis, a Democrat running for Tom Reynolds' seat, as saying that he wants to raise attention about gas prices. And that he wants more domestic oil drilling - including in ANWR - and more nuclear power.

Ugh.

If this is what's going to pass as energy policy debate in this election, the public is getting shortchanged. The idea that more drilling will solve our gas woes needs to stop. The research doesn't back it up. And nuclear power comes with its own set of serious issues, so it's not a solution to be floated casually.

There have got to be better solutions to the energy problem. Let's start with conservation, please.

Filling your potential constituents' gas tanks is like kissing babies or throwing a picnic. It looks nice, but it's meaningless. Plus, it smacks of vote-buying.