Democrats use oil profits as a campaign device
Published in The Tennessean , Sunday, May 29, 2011 by Richard J. Grant History is easier to understand when we remember that the interests of individual politicians regularly differ from those of their constituents. This helps explain the recent grandstanding by Senate Democrats when they summoned oil-company executives to act as political punching bags to help distract attention from the Obama administration's abysmal record on energy supply. This show trial was the centerpiece for hearings in support of the Democrats' “Close Big Oil Tax Loopholes Act,” which purports to eliminate oil-industry subsidies. The show-trial format fit well with the political exploitation of public distress over rising gasoline and oil prices. The Senators made wild and misleading insinuations in the form of marketable soundbites while the oil executives had to respond in the longer paragraphs that are usually needed to explain reality. Passive listeners were led to believe that oil companies were m