When Tony Hayward, BP's chief executive, testifies to the US Senate today about the company's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, he will be only the latest corporate leader in the Washington hot seat.
A lot is made in the UK of the fact that Mr Hayward is British and runs a UK-listed company, as if it accounts for the political anger that has exploded at BP over its failure to cap the gusher left behind by the Deepwater Horizon rig. In reality, nationalism has little to do with it – the sound and fury would be just as intense had it been ExxonMobil.
The heads of Goldman Sachs, Moody's, Toyota and other corporate sinners have been paraded in Congress in recent months, with little sign that being a US company confers an advantage. Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman was born in the Bronx but he was treated as contemptuously as if he had worn a monocle, top hat and tails.