[King:] You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. Happening now, record-high oil and gas prices have the candidates talking the talk, but what can they really do as president to ease the pinch on your wallet? Also, we will show you what's behind Hillary Clinton's bowling challenge to Barack Obama. We will talk about that and much more with the best political team on television. Plus, he's a former pro wrestler, now a former governor. Find out what would it take to get Jesse Ventura to run for office again. Wolf Blitzer is off today. I'm John King. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.
[Rep. Jay Inslee , Washington:] And, just as I was walking in this room, I had a fellow from Virginia, told him where I was headed into, and he said, Congressman, I own stock in one of those companies, but give them hell anyway.
[King:] Big oil was on Capitol Hill today defending its big profits and a big tax break. Top executive told angry lawmakers their companies are not to blame for rising fuel prices and said higher energy taxes on energy companies won't help consumers. Out on the campaign trail, the Democratic candidates are burning up a lot of miles per gallon talking up their energy ideas to the voters. Let's go live to Suzanne Malveaux. She's standing by. And, Suzanne, Hillary Clinton seems energized.
[Suzanne Malveaux, Cnn White House Correspondent:] Absolutely, John. She was energized. All eyes, of course, on Congress, on the Hill, to see whether or not they can do more than hold hearings to actually lower those gas prices. But the big questions for candidates putting out these proposals today is whether or not they can really get done anything immediately to ease the pain. Well, earlier today, Senator Clinton made it very clear that she is sticking in this race for the long run to answer those questions.
[Malveaux:] Like Rocky Balboa, who sprinted up the stairs in Philadelphia to prepare for the big fight, in the same city, Senator Clinton declared
[Clinton:] When it comes to finishing the fight, Rocky and I have a lot in common. I never quit.
[Malveaux:] Beating back calls from some of her opponent's supporters to step down, she reaffirmed her commitment not only to fighting Barack Obama, but also big oil.
[Clinton:] The president is too busy holding hands with the Saudis to care about American truck drivers who can't afford to fill up their tank any longer.
[Obama:] We need a president who can stand up to big oil and big energy companies and say enough is enough.
[Malveaux:] The two Democratic candidates are crisscrossing Pennsylvania, dropping in at gas stations and truck stops to convince voters they've got the best plan to tackle soaring gas prices and big oil profits. Clinton and Obama held dueling events in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania just a mile apart bringing their campaigns to voters hungry for a quick fix.
[Unidentified Male:] The trucking business is pretty bad because as the gas prices are higher, the rates for the cabs is higher and the customers are all complaining.
[Unidentified Female:] It's getting ridiculous. You can't go anywhere hardly.
[Unidentified Male:] It's costing me $60, $70 a week that it used to cost me $30.
[Malveaux:] In Washington, top executives from five of the biggest oil companies were grilled before Congress over their growing profits and corporate tax breaks.
[Inslee:] If you were going to give awards for taxpayer abuses, this would win the Heisman and the Oscar and the Nobel Prize.
[Malveaux:] Clinton is calling for oil companies to contribute to a $50 billion fund to invest in alternative energy, for car manufacturers to increase fuel-efficiency standards and for the government to tap into its emergency oil reserves. Obama is calling for a $150 billion investment over 10 years in clean energy and an 80 percent reduction in carbon emissions over 40 years. Energy industry experts say the candidates' plans offer little to provide immediate relief, as even Obama acknowledges.
[Obama:] I would be dishonest if I said we've got a lot of short- term answers to bringing down gas prices. I don't think we do.
[Malveaux:] And, John, this really isn't unfamiliar, unlike what we've heard from President Bush for some time, saying to establish energy independence it's going to take a while and fundamentally requiring the U.S. government change its relationships with Middle East countries John.
[King:] So, Suzanne, a competition among the Democrats there to say I would do the best job or I would act the quickest. What about Senator McCain, the Republican?
[Malveaux:] John McCain has a different approach. It really is kind of the free market approach. It's something that we've heard from him before. So he's not really big on subsidizing alternative sources of energy, at least not all of them. He wants to see some of those barriers, as well, for nuclear energy to become an alternative, if you will. And he has proposed a bipartisan plan to what they call reasonable caps on carbon emissions. So he is really looking at this in a totally different way John.
[King:] Energy now part of the debate and very much part of the economic debate, as middle class families feel the squeeze. Suzanne Malveaux. Thank you very much, Suzanne. So what can the candidates do, if anything, as president, about skyrocketing oil and gas prices? Joining us now to talk about that and a whole lot more, CNN's senior political analyst, Gloria Borger. She's here in Washington. CNN's Jack Cafferty in New York and CNN senior political analyst David Gergen is in Boston. All, of course, part of the best political team on television. Jack, Obama, at the end of Suzanne's piece there, being honest...
[Cafferty:] Yes.
[King:] ... saying there's a lot we can debate, a lot we can think about and talk about, but not much I could do today, tomorrow, or next week or month for you.
[Cafferty:] Well, you know, it's refreshing to hear an honest comment out of a politician's mouth. These hearings are a periodic public display bordering on a carnival, where these hypocritical members of the United States government drag these oil executives in front of them and castigate them for their obscene profits. I'm not defending their profits, but this country hasn't had a coherent energy policy probably since before the Arab oil embargo in 1973. These days, the idea of an energy policy is to put Dick Cheney in a closed, locked room out of sight of the public with some guys from Enron and some oil company guys, hammer out some kind of a deal and then sit back and watch oil prices go from $28 when Bush was inaugurated to $111 now. Twice in the last year the House has voted to roll back those tax breaks for the oil companies and use the money to develop alternative forms of energy. Twice that bill has failed to get through the Senate because the Republicans in the Senate are blocking it, because they don't want to offend their buddies in the oil industry. This is disingenuous, at the least, and highly hypocritical at the most, for these for these people to pose at these hearings and pretend with all this hand-wringing to be so concerned. They've done nothing.
[King:] Well, Gloria, to that point, if they've done nothing and I think it's safe to assume we could spread the blame I won't say equally. I won't try to get into proportions, but bipartisan there's bipartisan blame for not being able to figure out a way to at least do the things they can agree on. Is there any reason to believe that a new president would alter this debate in any great way given the narrow balance of power in Congress?
[Gloria Borger, Cnn Senior Political Analyst:] Well, first of all, you have to see if that balance of power changes. You have to see who becomes president of the United States. But I think all of these candidates Republican John McCain and Democrats the one thing they do agree on is that you do need some kind of long-term energy policy in this country, to talk about investments in technology. And so that you can come up with a policy that doesn't rely on the Saudis, as Hillary Clinton was saying. And I do think I agree with Jack. I think Obama was honest in saying that political candidates don't have any long short-term fixes right now. Of course, it becomes a topic of discussion in a presidential campaign because people go to the pump and they're angry about it. But there are no short-term fixes for this right now.
[King:] David, I want to turn your attention to another issue that's been on the radar for a long time where not much seems to get done, and that's immigration reform, back on the table today in this campaign because the administration says it will issue some environmental waivers, some other land management waivers, and try to speed up to accelerate the building of that fence along the U.S.Mexican border. Now, John McCain didn't like the fence much to begin with, but now he says he's for it. Border security first is his mantra. At our debate at our last debate, I asked both Democratic candidates about this. And they say if elected president, they'd revisit the issue of the fence. Let's listen to them first.
[Clinton:] So what I've said is that I would say wait a minute, we need to review this. There may be places where a physical barrier is appropriate. I think when both of us voted for this, we were voting for the possibility that where it was appropriate and made sense, it would be considered.
[Obama:] Well, this is an area where Senator Clinton and I almost entirely agree. I think that the key is to consult with local communities, whether it's on the commercial interests or the environmental stakes of creating any kind of barrier. And the Bush administration is not real good at listening. That's not what they do well.
[King:] So, David, the administration says it's doing this because Congress has passed a law saying get it done and get it done fast. But in putting this back into a campaign year, how does it impact the race for president?
[David Gergen, Cnn Senior Political Adviser:] Well, in fact, John, I think all three candidates are pretty close together on immigration in some fundamental ways. And that is there is a general consensus now that security has to come first. Some sort of sealing of the borders has to occur. When Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both start talking about fences, you know the conversation has changed, the debate has changed. So I think where the disagreement really starts is how serious are they about some sort of path to citizenship, if you can secure the borders. And on that, I think there's a considerable question of whether whether they're willing to whether they have the political courage to go forward on that and be very plain about it in the campaign. But it I might just add one coda to the conversation about oil. Look, I think there have been some huge profits that the oil companies have experienced and that need to be you know, they need to pay their taxes and to pay their fair share. But I think it's argue wrong to argue or suggest that somehow the oil companies have been manipulating these prices upward. These prices have not been, you know, rising sky high because of the Bush administration. They've been rising sky high because world demand is up so significantly. It's skyrocketing in places like China and India. And we're living in a new world. And it's one in which, if we're going to be realistic about our place as a superpower, we've got to do some very tough things. And I have to tell you, none of the candidates is yet facing up in a realistic way to the kind of tough choices we face ahead, whether we're going to do nuclear power or whether they're going to put prices on gasoline and carbon, whether we're going to do some things that are going to really pinch.
[King:] OK. A quick time out here. We'll be back in just a minute. And when we do, Hillary Clinton challenges Barack Obama not to a debate, but to bowling. We're going to show you how she's sweetening the deal and what's behind it. Plus, Chelsea Clinton mum on the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Is it really none of our business, as she says or not? Stay with us. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.