After watching oil prices rocket up to an average of $4/gallon, Democrats in the Senate will bring back a classic piece of legislative theater today, as top executives from five major oil companies will go before a Senate committee for questioning.
At issue? Their big profits of recent months, as Democrats take aim at Big Oil like a kid's birthday pinata.
Today's witnesses include the CEO of Chevron, President of Shell Oil, President of BP America, the CEO of Conoco Phillips and the head of Exxon Mobil.
Some of these same suits have been in the hot seat before, as Congressional committees have hauled them in to answer for why it costs more for a gallon of gasoline.
One of my colleagues at Politico called it the annual "perp walk" for oil and gas executives, and that's not a bad way to describe it.
It's not likely to produce drama like that when tobacco company executives were brought in en masse by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) years ago.
Instead, this is almost like a way for lawmakers to blow off steam, by running Big Oil up and down the flagpole before television cameras.
Democrats want to embarrass the oil chieftains by asking why they can't get rid of $4 billion in tax breaks that go to major petroleum companies.
The oil companies are likely to talk about how much money they spend to search for oil and how much of their profit goes back into creating jobs and paying taxes, etc.
Back in April of 2008, the same companies sent up their top officials, who urged the Congress to allow more offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and to reduce restrictions on where Big Oil can explore.
"The five oil execs answering questions didn't give an inch on their profits," I wrote that day.
One should probably expect much the same today, as Democrats try to translate anger at high gas prices into a political boost and an election lead weight around the GOP.
The timing of this hearing had a bit of irony yesterday, as trading in gasoline futures had to be halted on Wednesday in New York - because the price was falling so fast.
In other words, the Gas Price Political Cycle that I wrote about earlier this week is in full bloom.
