Potemkin Congress Indeed

I think Jon Carroll is RIGHT on the money with this, sad to say. From the San Francisco Chronicle:

There were two very fine photographs on the front page of this very newspaper the other day. The first showed the speaker of the House driving off in a hydrogen-powered car after a news conference on gas prices. The second showed him, about 100 yards down the road, getting out of the energy-efficient car and lumbering toward the SUV that would take him the rest of the way to wherever he was going.

Coming soon -- the Potemkin Congress.

Politicians are trying very hard to convince us that they have not been cowering before the mighty oil companies for just ever. They are talking bravely of taxing windfall profits, and prohibiting accounting tricks that keep profits high, and -- well, a bunch of stuff that will never happen. Bill Frist is talking about giving each of us $100 just for being ourselves. He feels our pain. Well, no, he doesn't, but he's hired someone to feel our pain.

Is there a more transparent trick than "Vote for me and I'll give you $100"? It's beyond satire. What's next? Free orgasms? Wait, they're already free. The system works.

It is equally amusing watching the oil companies explain how their record profits are not profits as such, and that with the costs of exploration and the growing need for energy and -- did you even try to follow it? We're rolling in money, but we're not actually rolling in money! This is not money! We are not here! Unless you're a stockholder, in which case we are here and this is money.

One might say to the American people: What did you expect? You voted for a guy who made his money in the oil business. (What he did in the oil business: not so clear.) You voted for a vice president who set energy policy by having secret meetings with oil company executives. You were in favor of a war that was fought to guarantee our oil supply. You cheered when economy-stimulating tax cuts were enacted. You are now paying $3 a gallon at the pump in what Daniel Yergin has called "the permanent shortage," and you feel betrayed? This was an act between consenting adults; it's a little late for buyer's remorse.

Not that one would expect the Democrats to do much better. Our political institutions are, in the area of corporate governance, largely irrelevant. The government couldn't help even if the government wanted to help. That train left the station 30 years ago.