Durbin Dumb and Dumber

Hearings today where Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin touted his bill and threatened oil market participants, noted briefly by Market Watch today:

The Increasing Transparency and Accountability in Oil Prices Act of 2008, sponsored by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., was discussed in committee Tuesday on Capitol Hill.

Most oil contracts are held by hedgers. Who does Dick Durbin want to take the other side of a contract, if not eeevil speculators--who provide liquidity which evens out prices in the long run.

I think he needs a trip to the commodity exchanges, perhaps in his home state, in Chicago. This from a story last week where his bill was discussed:

Threats from Washington to rein in the way investors bet on oil prices are still too far from realization to cool prices, analysts say.

On Thursday, near-term crude oil futures finished the New York session up 36 cents at $136.74, rebounding from more than a 3% loss triggered by a rally in the U.S. dollar. Read Futures Movers.

"I generally discount the impact that the talk has had so far," said Eric Wittenauer, energy and industrial metals analyst at Wachovia Securities. "We'll have to see more action -- the action we've seen of late [in oil prices] is reflective of the dollar performance."

In fact, some proposals could actually increase prices, say analysts. Efforts to raise margin requirements, for instance, could push out traders in short positions -- or traders betting that oil will fall -- by making short positions more expensive, said FBR's Book.

Exit question. Does Sen. Dunce Durbin think Congress should be investigating "speculation" in corn prices? Gee, maybe Congress should investigate itself. Or call God on the carpet. How about getting real, Sen. Durbin, and lift the ban on US offshore drilling.

Better yet, let's vote Durbin out.