With one year to go before the votes are counted, would it be impolite of me to declare rookie Democratic U.S. Congressman Peter Welch the winner of the 2008 Vermont U.S. House race?

At the moment, Welchie's only political critics in the Green Mountains are folks on the antiwar left who are upset that Ol' Pedro has not supported the impeachment of the Liar in the Oval Office or voted "no" on any and all Iraq War money.

No Republican in Vermont is showing any interest in what would surely be a political suicide mission.

Congressman Peter Welch and New Jersey Democrat Rob Andrews, a 10-term veteran considered a "centrist" Democrat, told reporters on a telephone press conference from Capitol Hill Thursday they have introduced a bill to repeal legislation passed by the Republican Congress in 2000 that deregulated energy markets.

Dubbed the "Enron Loophole" - the legislation removed any government oversight of natural gas and heating oil markets that the congressmen say resulted in windfall profits for speculators while consumers bills have soared.

Q. How come the "Enron Loophole" hasn’t been closed up to this point?