GOP kills Big Oil windfall profits tax

Well, that was quick.

President Bush and his rubber-stampers in the Republican-led congress got a good day's worth of headlines out of their announced intention to address the massive increase in the price of gas. Almost immediately, however, they reverted right back to type.

We learned today that Bush was really just looking for an excuse to free Big Oil from environmental regulations on gas refining.

We learned also that even as they spoke of investigating oil companies' obscene profits, they were at the same time defending them from a windfall profits tax.

House and Senate tax writers have been struggling to reach an accord on separate tax bills approved last year to extend some expiring tax cuts enacted during President Bush's first term. But House Republicans have raised strong objections to Senate-passed provisions that would raise nearly $5 billion in taxes over five years -- primarily by changing arcane accounting rules that have allowed oil companies to substantially lower their tax bills, according to House and Senate tax aides familiar with the talks.

The actions of Republicans hashing out a tax bill behind closed doors indicate that, despite tough talk from the White House and Capitol Hill, the party is not ready to hit the oil companies hard -- even on measures that have broad support in the Senate.

They just can't help themselves.

Now, the question is, will the writers of all those breathless "GOP Demands Answers!" headlines be able to absorb this news and pass it along to their readers and viewers. Call me a cynic, but somehow I doubt it.