"It won't do a damn thing about American energy," yelled an aggravated House GOP Leader John Boehner, who returned to the floor several times during the day and night to denounce the effort.

But after months of political stunts by both parties on the energy issue, the debate seemed to be oddly out of kilter with the big story of the day, that being the ups and downs on Wall Street.

In fact, as House members were gathering for the final vote on the Democratic plan, the bells were ringing on the Associated Press wire with news of an emergency $85 billion government loan to insurance giant AIG, one that would give the feds an 80% stake in the company.

Back on the floor, Democrats were ripping Republicans for opposing the bill, almost taunting them at times, for their opposition to the bill that was unveiled only on Monday night.

""To my Republican colleagues," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, "Now's your chance to vote for it. Your presidential candidate is running for office under the motto 'Country First.' It's an admirable thought--now's your chance to live by it."

As usual on a major bill like this, both parties looked at the same legislative text and came away with completely different reviews on what it would or would not do on energy.

"Barton: Bill Pretends to Produce Energy," said a press release from Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX.)

Among the many provisions, the bill would repeal $18 billion in subsidies for oil companies that were approved back when oil was less than $50/barrel.

The bill would allow drilling offshore up to 50 miles from the coast, but it would not let states share in drilling royalties as Republicans have proposed.

"There's more in this bill about bicycles than nuclear power, and that should be an indicator of where this bill is going," said Rep. Steve Pearce (R-NM.)

Pearce was right on that score. There were 12 mentions of the word "bicycle" in the 290 page bill. Nuclear wasn't found once.

This bill has little chance to be approved by the Senate, where a full scale debate on energy - if Democrats every allowed one to occur - could probably go on for six weeks or so.

What it does do is give Democratic lawmakers the chance to go home and say that they voted for more drilling in a major energy bill, while Republicans opposed it.

It is a classic CYA kind of legislative maneuver, which I've seen both parties do through the years.

Republicans did get a procedural vote late on Tuesday night, which provided them with a chance to put members on the record on a bi-partisan effort on energy.

As expected, that fell short.

This bill now goes to the Senate, where it realistically has no chance to be approved this year, but I'm sure that Democrats will throw it on the floor to wring some more political gain out of this.

In a sense, it is a big switch for Democrats to vote for plans to allow more offshore drilling.

But they don't have to worry about it becoming law - at least, not right now.