According to rigid ideologues of the right, U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) has committed apostasy. He has offered to compromise with Democrats (gasp! shudder!) to get energy legislation passed.

Chambliss is a founder of the Gang of 10, a group of five Republican and five Democratic senators who agreed to try to break the partisan impasse over proposals to deal with the nation's dependence on petroleum. In general (though there are certainly exceptions), Republicans want more drilling offshore and more nuclear plants, while de-emphasizing alternative fuels and conservation. Democrats, as a rule, favor the opposite —- no broadening of drilling rights, lots of conservation and alternative energy solutions.

The Gang of 10 wants to offer up a bill with a few proposals favored by each group. That's the way things usually get done. It's rare for any ideologically pure proposal to become law. (The exception comes when one party dominates government, as the Republicans did at the national level for several years. And we all know where that got us.)

However, the keepers of the conservative catechism would prefer good politics over good progress. Radio pitbulls Rush Limbaugh and Neal Boortz have upbraided Chambliss for behaving like a grown-up. They are furious, and not because they believe a compromise would be genuinely bad for the republic, according to Cox Washington Bureau reporter Marilyn Geewax, who reported on Chambliss' efforts to placate Boortz and Limbaugh.

Instead, the frustration of GOP spinmeisters is fueled by pure partisanship. If GOP senators make a deal possible, they'll reduce the party's ammunition to fire at Democrats in the fall elections.

"Finally, Senator McCain had an issue the Republicans could embarrass [Barack] Obama with and perhaps ride to victory, because the vast majority of the American people want to do the opposite of what the Democrats want to do," Limbaugh railed last week. "So nobody can figure out, why compromise with the Democrats and cut the knees off of Senator McCain?"

Limbaugh must believe voters are pretty dumb if he thinks they'll buy any candidate's claim that gas prices would start dropping immediately with more drilling. As any high school student should be able to tell you —- and as any good conservative recites every day before breakfast —- prices are determined by supply and demand. Prices are high because demand is high for a product, oil, in limited supply.

Indeed, prices have been falling in recent weeks, probably because demand is also falling. As prices at the pump soared into the stratosphere, motorists —- even we SUV-loving Americans —- started buying less gasoline.

Won't drilling increase supply? In global terms, very slightly, and not for 10 years or so, probably just in time for the next big uptick in demand. If the China Olympics have taught us anything, it's this: China is rapidly becoming an affluent world power. Its population, like that of India, will inevitably use more and more petroleum.

Nor will drilling in American waters decrease costs for American drivers. Oil is a world commodity sold by multinational corporations at world prices. You don't get a price discount on American oil by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

But if coastal states want to risk drilling off their coastlines, so be it. Let them decide. While increased drilling is unlikely to help anyone but Big Oil, it's worth the trade-off if it also allows passage of provisions taxing oil companies to raise funds for an Apollo-like project to find sustainable energy.

Of course, environmental lefties will have to compromise, too. They've been whacking Obama for his inclination to support the Gang of 10; a couple of weeks ago, he said he'd support a compromise on drilling to get significant funding for alternative fuels. For his blasphemy, Obama has been derided on the left for selling out his principles, moral cowardice, flip-flopping and lots of other failings.

The "flip-flop" epithet is especially puzzling, since Obama has based his entire presidential campaign on a pledge to initiate a new brand of bipartisan politics. Are his supporters surprised that he meant it?

> Cynthia Tucker is the editorial page editor. Her column appears Sundays and Wednesdays.

cynthia@ajc.com