Online Public Relations Thoughts

Here is Congress doing what it does best -- administering a public spanking. Hearings are great theater. Congressmen gain political points with constituents. TV cameras pick up the huffing and puffing, and Joe Sixpack enjoys seeing the powerful squirm. Hearings like this are "feel-goods" for voters that result in nothing, but look like Congress is doing something. It is cynical, but it works. Few understand what it would take to devise a meaningful solution to the problem of high fuel prices. Even the Congressmen are unlikely to know. So, it is easier to castigate the industry rather than look for answers. Fortunately, oil industry executives have been through this kind of public grilling before. They know what to do, and they will make it through the jibes. As for voters, they will continue to pay at the pump whatever the market rate is.