Brown tried again, reminding him that Democrats said they were going to deal with this issue, and asked, "What are you proposing to do to bring down gas prices?" Again Durbin dodged the question, saying instead that the answer was to elect more Democrats to Congress in November. That ended the interview.

Perhaps the reason Durbin's responses were so evasive has to do the fact that Democrats don't have answers that make any sense. Ethanol is now a big political problem for the Democrats and is seen as one of the chief causes of higher food prices. Fatter farm subsidies, which Democrats stuffed into last week's farm bill, is the other, pushing up the price of grains, milk, bread, beef and poultry. Democrats talked of expanding ethanol subsidies last year, expanding production into other environmentally friendly resources such as witch grass and wood chips. Two things Democrats did not run on last year: boosting oil and natural gas exploration here at home and building more refineries.

"The basic story that has brought oil from $20 to $130 is that world demand is growing robustly when world supply is not," says Jeffrey Rubin, chief economist of CIBC World Markets.

"It all comes down to supply and demand," says oil magnate T. Boone Pickens who knows a thing or two about both.

That's the problem and the solution in a nutshell. But it's not the answer Democrats like Kohl and Durbin want to hear because in an election year, fanatic finger-pointing sells better.

So they continue to point the finger of blame at oil-company executives, commodity traders, and gas-guzzling SUVs, and promote wood chips, witch grasses and windmills as the answer to all our energy needs.