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POLITICS & COMMUNITY The Background on the Barton-O'Leary Hearings by Steven Mencher OTHER RESOURCES The Messy Politics of Gasoline Prices: AllPolitics summarizes the recent debate surrounding the gasoline tax and provides some good audio clips and sound bites as well. Coffee Talk: Hazel O'Leary discusses "misunderstandings" surrounding the Energy Department in a recent interview. Department of Energy: Visit the department's official home page.	If you had any doubts about whether the politics of energy would be a factor in this year's Presidential campaign, they were likely erased by the panic and posturing this Spring about high gasoline prices. By the time the fumes had settled, Democrats and Republicans alike were, in the opinion of many, pandering to the public's worst fears about a temporary blip in the cost of a fill-up. But the energy wars actually started late last year, with Republicans fueled by lust for the blood of Department of Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary. Although it ruled both houses of Congress, the Grand Old Party apparently didn't have the votes to eliminate the Energy Department-- a cherished goal left over from the Reagan years. Thwarted, Republicans set out to embarrass and paralyze the DOE. The last act of that drama is playing out this week in hearings on Capitol Hill. Just like the pitch for a Hollywood movie, the best Washington stories can be summed up in a sentence. Here's the Republican spin: "Travelling in grand style, on Madonna's plane, Hazel O'Leary barnstormed across the world on four international jaunts, energy executives in tow, spending millions of taxpayer dollars in an attempt to burnish her own image." From the left, Dems and O'Leary counter that she has seen the future of the American energy business, and it is in lighting up the Chinese countryside, and supporting the nascent South African democracy. She counts up billions of dollars in direct help that she and the DOE have provided to American businesses who participated in four international delegations, which also included trips to India and Pakistan.
Up until late last year, O'Leary was the poster child for the Clinton cabinet.	Why haven't the travel controversy, and an earlier flap about a supposed "enemies list" shaken O'Leary from her job? Probably because she had built up so much political capital. Up until late last year, O'Leary was the poster child for the Clinton cabinet. As a Black woman, she neatly summed up the administration's goal of diversity. She was a breathing reminder to Clinton's core constituences, who might have felt abandoned when the President jettisoned Lani Guinier, that Bill Clinton's actions could, on occasion, match his words. And as each member of the President's inner circle revealed an Achilles heel-- Henry Cisneros's payments to his mistress, Ron Brown's questionable financial dealings, Janet Reno's lack of leadership under fire -- O'Leary began to stand for something that was palpably new, and certifiably heroic. The most visible example: she tore down the wall of secrecy surrounding blind radiation tests on citizens, and declassified thousands of pages of evidence describing unethical practices of the American scientific establishment during the Cold War.
Why are Joe Barton and Hazel O'Leary mud-wrestling on C-SPAN this week?	Was that what made her a target of those within the DOE who felt she was bucking the culture? And how did a steadily-rising but unspectacular Texas Republican come to lead the charge against her? Why are Joe Barton and Hazel O'Leary mud-wrestling on C-SPAN this week? Is this a clash of political visions, or simply a titanic struggle of two powerful personalities? Perhaps it would help to get to know these two players just a bit better. Mr. Barton Ms. O'Leary