GOP Committee Determines Oil Execs Didn't Lie To Congress

[Rose Siding]

This concerns the question Lautenberg asked the oil execs about their "participation" in Cheney's task force:

The chief executives of Exxon Mobil Corp., ConocoPhillips Co. and Chevron Corp. answered no. The president of Shell Oil Co. said his company did not participate "to my knowledge," and the chief of BP America Inc. said he did not know.

The Bush administration has refused to identify who participated in the task force meetings. But The Washington Post reported last week that a White House document shows that in 2001, officials from Exxon Mobil, Conoco (before its merger with Phillips), Shell Oil and BP America met in the White House complex with the Cheney aides who were developing a national energy policy, parts of which became law and parts of which are still being debated.

Yesterday, Marnie Funk, a spokeswoman for the GOP staff of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, one of the two panels that convened the hearing, said its lawyers had reached a preliminary conclusion: Based on a court decision in which two groups unsuccessfully challenged the secrecy of the Cheney task force, Funk said the executives appeared to be telling the truth.

"What we simply determined was that the definition of 'participation' was something litigated, and what the court concluded was that attending meetings, and even making presentations, did not rise to the level of fully participating," Funk said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/22/AR2005112201655.html

[niallmac]

1. Depends on what your definition of 'is' is. n/t

[stevedeshazer]

2. What a whitewash job by the Republicans.

They weren't under oath. Of course, they lied. Ted Stevens made sure of it.

Good story about it here: http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/7221652p-7133626c.html

[longship]

3. Another one for the INews 5000 Headline Translator.

DI-DI-DI-di-di-di-di-di...

From the Washington Post: "GOP Committee Determines Oil Execs Didn't Lie To Congress"

Translation...

Beep... Boop... Squeeep... Scroop... DING!

"GOP Committee Determines Black is White, Hot is Cold, and Large is Small"

Bah-bah-BAH-bahhhh...Bah-da-da-da-da

With apologies to Marc Maron and Morning Sedition.

[Daphne08]

4. Surprise, surprise n/t

[leftstreet]

5. LOL - didn't rise to the level of participating?

Meetings and presentations don't count.

That's nice to know.
:eyes:

[mazzarro]

6. Geeeeeze - when are they going to stop!

These rethuglicans are brazeningly shameless and unapologetic about it! Congressional democrats need to get a clue and start realizing that it is not going to get back to the fairytale yesteryears of truthfulness, honesty, integrity and bipartisanship anytime soon. Rethugs are pulling up all the stops and do not care about what gets demolished so long as they achieve their goals.

[ninkasi]

7. What brazen hypocrisy...

And I'm talking about both the oil execs and the Republicans. Absolutely incredible, that they pretend to think anybody will believe them.

[Erika]

8. Republicans selling out working Americans once again

in favor of oil execs.