Here’s a bit of political irony. Last night, Dick Durbin was on Chicago Tonight arguing that drilling won’t affect the price of oil for 8 to 14 years because it will take that long to bring the new oil to market. But this is just hooey. Once there are new supplies scheduled to come into the market, it has an immediate impact the investment calculus for so-called “speculators,” reducing the price now because of anticipated supply later.

So does Dick Durbin just not understand basic economics? Well that, and he announced this morning that he’s planning to crack down on “speculators,” thus effectively diminishing the impact of any new oil supplies on the price of gas.

So here’s a perfect example of a politician being RIGHT only by virtue of his economic stupidity. Gotta love it.