Coughs...perhaps the gun thing should be covered in its own thread huh?
I wouldn't go so far as to say they outright own the Republicans (though I will admit they lobby more heavily there whi9ch I think has to do more with which states happen to have predominately republican leanings and oil distribution interests than anything else) nor suggest that they are the only party that the oil companies have their hooks into either. I would say the oil companies are equal opportunity exploiters.
Just look how Obama is doing exactly what the Oil interests have wanted ever since he got elected. Prior to that he was saying all sorts of things he realistically had no intention of accomplishing or was just inexperienced enough to actually believe he could change. Note the war in the middle has pretty much followed to the letter Cheney and Rumsfeld's original plan first introduced to Bush Senior during the First Gulf War and rejected only to be dusted off and re-presented to Bush Jr and accepted once conditions made it more appealing. Once finished in one area it just moves to the next...Iran is up on the chopping block after Afghanistan. Though personally I think Bush the elder rejected it because he actually fought in a war himself and didn't want to see us go into an open ended "war" for global domination of the oil corridor against India and China.