Contact: Bob Sturm, 703-396-6974; after 6 PM Eastern, 703-307-8176

MANASSAS, Virginia, Aug. 19 /Christian Newswire/ -- The following is a statement by Richard A. Viguerie, Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, regarding the responsibility for the high cost of gasoline, food, and other goods:

"Conservatives in Congress, the alternative media, and grassroots organizations have provided the leadership to use high gas prices as a teaching moment for America.

"The Democrats and their left-wing environmental allies are being held accountable for the energy crisis they created. As long as the debate rages, the liberals will pay a steep price in the Presidential, Senate, and House races.

"Unfortunately, five establishment Republican Senators (Saxby Chambliss, John Thune, Lindsey Graham, Bob Corker, Johnny Isakson) are backing a 'compromise' proposal which essentially capitulates to the liberal philosophy of strictly limiting energy production. These five Senators are acting as if the Republican Party deserves the label 'the stupid party.'

"The Gang of Ten Republican and Democratic Senators is nothing more or less than a Trojan Horse to allow the liberals in Congress and their ventriloquist, the radical environmental movement, to escape their direct responsibility for:
 

• America's energy crisis
• Greatly increased cost for food and for goods made from oil
• Greatly increased cost for goods that are transported to market
• Transfer of hundreds of Billions of dollars yearly to America's enemies
• Loss of American jobs
• Food shortages and increased prices for hundreds of millions of the world's poor
   

"Conservatives have the Left off-balance and uncertain as to how to deal with this crisis they caused. We should redouble our efforts to make the liberals feel the pain that they've made Americans feel."

NOTE TO EDITORS: Richard A. Viguerie pioneered political direct mail and has been called "one of the creators of the modern conservative movement" (The Nation magazine) and one of the "conservatives of the century" (The Washington Times). His latest book is Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big-Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause (Bonus Books), which, Jerome Corsi wrote in WorldNetDaily, is "destined to become a classic of conservative thinking" and "may be the most important conservative book written in the last quarter century."