Cheney had a few of these guys at his personal beck and call. The only one I can remember is Ken Lay who was the CEO of Enron.

Lay was already known to Cheney since Cheney was the CEO of Halliburton which also, at the time, was headquartered in Houston. (It is now headquartered in Dubai.) A friend of W. Bush, Sen. Graham (R-TX) has a wife named Wendy who was also on the Enron board of directors, so when Cheney needed advice on the oil business he had Lay and his advisors to call on. These were people he had known for years and trusted their advice.

And Lay was on the Energy Panel in a paid capacity. Lay went to great trouble to make sure you knew that he was on the panel and you were not.

So the question I have on this is: If this was a good thing when Republicans were in power why is it a bad thing now?