From The New York Times:
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers grilling Tony Hayward, the chief executive of BP, grew frustrated on Thursday when he repeatedly sidestepped their questions, saying he was unaware of engineering decisions before the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and refusing to speculate about what investigators would discover about its causes. [read more]Image from mirror.co.uk
After spending a good part of the day watching the U.S. House members question Mr. Hayward, it was obvious that the whole spectacle was so that each House member would have an opportunity to put a YouTube clip on his/her government website to proclaim how they are taking "action" to address the Gulf oil mess.
The reality is that everyone knows what is going on and everyone knows that BP will not admit to any more culpability than the final outcome of a long investigation reveals to be the case. Mr. Hayward is not going to say that BP was totally at fault when there are issues with regard to contractors and U.S. government agencies contributing to the incident. Mr. Hayward's face was an extraordinary shade of red throughout the proceedings which led to the drama of whether or not he was going to have a stroke or heart attack at any moment. It was a visual alternative to shouting, "Bugger off!"
Yes, bloody good theater, but not much in the way of new action.