by Randy Rieland. Big Banking, Big Auto, and Big Coal have all been to the woodshed in the last little while. Tomorrow it’s Big Oil’s turn. Capitol Hill Summer Theater kicks off in style when the top execs of the world’s five largest oil companies report for their very own congressional beatdown. Leading the drilling grilling will be Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass); Big Oil’s biggest headache has already accused BP of either lying or incompetence on national TV . While Markey and company meet Big Oil in Washington, Barack Obama returns to the Gulf for his first overnight visit, and uses his first ever Oval Office address to outline a plan for making BP compensate Gulf businesses and residents for their mounting, spill-related losses. Pundits say tomorrow’s congressional oil hearing could match the drama of the 2008 performance by those crazy auto CEOs who flew to Washington on their private jets to ask for a public bailout . Oops. Some are predicting a reprise of the 1994 cigarette spectacle when tobacco company execs testified under oath that nicotine is not addictive .

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