If the GOP Platform Committee doesn't like Michele's energy plan, who will?

The Republican Party Platform Committee’s rejection today of a plank urging drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is a major embarrassment for committee member Michele Bachmann.

The 6^th District congresswoman has been one of Congress’ most vocal, if ill-informed, proponents of opening up the refuge to oil exploration and production, and she has made it one of her re-election campaign’s marquee issues. But Bachmann’s newfound energy expertise obviously didn’t impress the 112-member Platform Committee, which voted against including language favorable to the controversial proposal.

Bachmann and Republican activist Tony Sutton represent Minnesota on the panel.

The GOP’s presumptive nominee, John McCain, doesn’t support drilling in ANWR, and the majority of the committee’s members didn’t want to put the platform at odds with him, according to Congressional Quarterly.

“The goal is to not have this serve as a lightning rod,” said Terry Strine of Delaware, a member of the platform committee’s energy and environment subcommittee, which debated for more than four hours Tuesday. “This will bring difficulties and challenges or John McCain and none of us want to do that,” Strine added.

Others echoed that concern. “We have a nominee for the party who is entitled to a platform he can run on, and we should not create unnecessary conflicts between the nominee and the platform,” said James Bopp of Indiana.

We’re not likely to see a prolonged embrace between Bachmann and John McCain anytime soon, regardless of the party’s position on ANWR. Bachmann told Sherburne County Republicans last spring that McCain “is not my man. Our candidate was chosen by the media. But there are other races out there.”