By L.P. LUPO

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Because of the intense dissecting of the midterm elections, the over-the-top doings of Senators Jay Rockefeller, West Virginia Democrat, and Olympia Snow, Maine Republican, in a “Pope-to-Galileo” letter to ExxonMobil have received far too little attention, scorn and ridicule.

These two self-styled Kommissars, the coupon-clipping democrat of the extremely rich club and the so-called “moderate” republican lightweight, implored ExxonMobil to end its support of “climate change denial front groups.”

The ad hoc bipartisan Kommisariat declared on senatorial letterhead that the global-warming debate is over and that ExxonMobil should recognize the realities of climate change. If not, it will be taxed into submission.

Where is the ACLU when we need it?

The photograph dubbed “Piss Christ” fits under free speech, but any skepticism regarding global warming does not.

The senatorial letterhead was a nice touch, adding gravitas to essentially private communications.

May 100 senators write their drycleaners on senatorial letterhead if a shirt receives heavy starch instead of light. Or may they write their daycare center complaining that they were charged three hours after their child was not there a minute more than two hours and 45 minutes.

Where did SnowRock get the idea that they are exempt from the First Amendment?

After all, it starts, “Congress shall make no law . . . ”

You would think if they cannot make any law to abridge freedom of speech, they certainly should not be allowed to threaten a company because of opposing viewpoints.

And if they are going to make such threats, shouldn’t the senate, or even an inconsequential sub-committee of the senate, say, the Senate Subcommittee on the Abridgement of Debate on Controversial Issues That It Has No Good Answers For, have voted to send a letter to ExxonMobil?

Perhaps lame-duck Senator Rick Santorum should spend his remaining two months in office writing letters to corporate backers of National Public Radio that they stop their donations to All Things Left because of communism’s death in 1989.

Incidentally, what do Rockefeller, who owes his senate seat to fossil fuels, and Snow really know about the cause of global warming?

Maybe they read the Cliffs Notes to the schlock-umentary by that great scientist and divinity school and law school dropout, Al Gore.

The Rockefeller-Snow letter should have at least offered a quid pro quo, which I would favor.

The federal government stops wasting billions of dollars funding alarmist global-warming studies by government agencies, outside non-profits and the United Nations in exchange for ExxonMobil’s withdrawal of support for its pet groups.

If the debate is truly over, then the government’s pro-warming spending is a titanic waste.

By the way, senators, forgive me for asking, but when exactly will the last fish be caught?