A FORMER TEXAS congressman embarked on a diplomatic mission to Saudia Arabia, claiming that the recent plunge in oil prices was "harming our own domestic interest and thus the interest of our national security. "He called for oil price stability--that's the new socially acceptable euphemism for oil price controls--to protect America.

Whose America, Mr. Bush?

Do you mean, perhaps, your now-ailing former constituents in that state, which has boomed over the last 10 years thanks to high oil prices? Fact is, Mr. Presidential candidate, that most of America has struggled against rising energy prices to maintain its standard of living--and in New England struggled to keep warm enough to stay alive--as your crude cronies got rich.

In Peoria and everywhere outside of the three other oil-producing states hurt by the price fall, it's Christmas in April as utility bills drop and commuters drive home with more of their paychecks in hand. And let's remember that as oil prices drop, so do prices for just about every other consumer product. That means more real income, more consumer demand and more jobs--even considering increased unemployment in the capital-intensive oilfields. So let's have no illusions that Bush's "price stability" is motivated by concern for anyone but the fat-cat oilmen who contribute to his campaign fund.

What's so ironic is how quick the Vice President and other live-free-market-or-die types are quick to scuttle survival of the fittest when people they know best end up losers. But let us shed no tears for the oilmen, they've soaked it in for too long. Listen, fellas, we're not going to change the rules 'cause the going got tough.

The fun aspect of the Bush fiasco is that it is a rare instance of definite political payback. That is, Bush did something clearly egregious--put a big $250 cowboy boot right in the old mouth--in calling for price controls, and the voters in the rest of non-Texas America, still a sizable majority, will be quick to pay him back for his short-sighted comments.

While in places like Detroit--where headlines screamed "Bush to Michigan: Drop Dead!"--Bush's fall has been total, in other 'burbs too, the sentiment is rising against Bush, who is nominally at least the Vice President of all of the United States, not just his favorite ones.

Bush called the oil price slip "a continued free fall like a parachutist jumping out without a parachute." He deserves to do the same at the polls in his almost certain quest for the oval office 18 months hence.