PinnochiOil

I'm shocked -- shocked! -- that oil executives lied when they told Congress they had not met with Vice President Cheney and his secret energy task force meetings back in 2001.

As Dana Milbank and Justin Blum report in The Washington Post:

"The executives were not under oath when they testified, so they are not vulnerable to charges of perjury; committee Democrats had protested the decision by Commerce Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) not to swear in the executives. But a person can be fined or imprisoned for up to five years for making 'any materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statement or representation' to Congress."

Does anyone remember Stevens' bilious reaction when Democrats on the Senate committee members pushed for the execs to be sworn in? Would anyone ask Sen. Stevens exactly why he was so adamantly opposed? Gosh, could he have known their testimony would be less than truthful?