WHAT EVER HAPPENED WITH THOSE OIL EXECS WHO LIED TO CONGRESS LAST MONTH?

Can you remember way back to early November when a pack of plutocratic Big Oil executives lied their asses off-- and thanks to corrupt on-the-take Republicans like Ted Stevens, not under oath-- on the Senate floor about meeting with Cheney's energy task force? Maybe this photo of this gaggle of crooks will remind you. They are, from the left, Lee R. Raymond of Exxon Mobil, David J. O'Reilly of Chevron, James J. Mulva of ConocoPhillips, Ross Pillari of BP America and John Hofmeister of Shell Oil. Lying to Congress, whether under oath or not, is a crime. Even for people who make multi-million dollar bonuses and pay less taxes than working people do.

Dana Milbank and Justin Blum at the WASHINGTON POST wrote a story the week after the false testimony highlighting a leaked document that pretty much shows that these vile monopolists should be invited to spend some time bunking with "Duke" Cunningham, Bill Frist, Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay, Bob Ney, and a whole prisonful of treacherous Republicrooks. The POST reported that a White House document they had obtained "shows that executives from big oil companies met with Vice President Cheney's energy task force in 2001 -- something long suspected by environmentalists but denied as recently as last week by industry officials testifying before Congress."

In a hearing at a rare joint session of the Senate Energy and Commerce committees the week before, the chief executives of Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips said their firms did not participate in the 2001 task force. The president of Shell Oil cagily hedged his bets saying his company did not participate "to my knowledge," and the chief of BP America Inc. took the ole "I know nothing" dodge.

At a time when more and more Americans are growing concerned with a plethora-- even a Noah-like flood-- of Republican corruption scandals with elected politicians-- from Bill Frist and Conrad Burns in the Senate to dozens of House members like DeLay, Ney, Pryce, Cunningham, Pombo, Taylor, Hastings, Doolittle...-- taking ungodly sums of money for doing the bidding of wealthy powerful corporations, Cheney's secretive activities attracted loud complaints from environmentalists and the public, who were completely shut out of his task force discussions, allowing corporate Big-wigs to participate-- if not dictate-- all the decisions. The POST reminds us that the Cheney "meetings were held in secret and the White House refused to release a list of participants. The task force was made up primarily of Cabinet-level officials. Judicial Watch and the Sierra Club unsuccessfully sued to obtain the records." But in their recent testimony at the Senate hearings NJ Senator Frank Lautenberg got them lying on the record. "The White House went to great lengths to keep these meetings secret, and now oil executives may be lying to Congress about their role in the Cheney task force," Lautenberg said. He has been pursuing the case ever since.

"Despite the Vice President’s active efforts to thwart open and transparent government, Congress has the right and the responsibility to seek and obtain information from witnesses that is honest and complete," Lautenberg explained. "When evidence arises that some of the statements made to Congress may be false, it calls into question a witness’s entire testimony and undermines Congress’ constitutional role." Back on November 16 he sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asking him to investigate whether oil executives violated the law by lying to Congress. It's now December 1 and Gonzales has still not responded. Now that the case is starting to heat up again, in the context of widespread GOP graft, bribery and corruption, Gonzales agreed to discuss it with Lautenberg today, scheduled a meeting this morning, and then canceled it at the last minute.

Today Lautenberg called on both Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, himself soon to be indicted for insider trading activities, and Minority Leader Harry Reid to join him in pressing the Attorney General for an investigation into whether the 5 top oil executives broke the law. “If witnesses believe that the laws requiring truthful testimony before the Senate will not be enforced, our hearings will lose their usefulness and the Senate’s oversight abilities will cease,” Lautenberg wrote in his letter to Frist and Reid. Like Cheney (and the Go-Go's), Frist's lips are sealed on this one. Reid, however, joined Lautenberg, having told "CNN on Nov. 17 that the 5 CEOs should "be brought back to the Congress, sworn in, and forced to testify again about their involvement with Vice President Cheney's secretive energy task force and all of the issues covered in the hearing." Even conservative Republican Energy Committee chairman Pete Domenici was aghast at the "apparent inconsistencies" and was asking for an explanation.

How important is all this? Probably more than you think. It's a vital piece of the puzzle in the Republican Culture of Corruption that is the true hallmark of Bush's catastrophic regime. And, like so much of the worst of Bush, it leads directly to the office of Dick Cheney.