Yes, it doesn’t sound nearly as cool as pretzelgate , or Kobe-gate and while it might be the red-headed step child of the original Watergate – this is serious.

We’re talking about "a pack of secret plastic-squeezing hypocrites."

Heard on the Hill: Bottled-Up Frustrations

The House Energy and Commerce Committee has made going green its business, taking up global warming legislation and championing alternative energy. But its ecofriendly philosophy apparently doesn’t extend to the drinking water provided during recent meetings.

A tipster notes to HOH that after years of doling out water to thirsty Members and hearing witnesses in pitchers and glasses (very environmentally correct, since they’re reusable), the panel is now using that ecoscourge, the disposable plastic water bottle.

Members of the committee at a hearing last week sipped from Deer Park brand bottles labeled “Aquapod,” the company’s line geared toward children, our spy says. The Aquapod bottles are round and squeezable, all the better to appeal to kids — but they’re definitely considered an enviro-no-no.

One Republican staffer joked that Democrats could claim that they’re only using the plastic bottles “for the kids.”

“Sure, cynics will say they’re a pack of secret plastic-squeezing hypocrites, but a fair assessment would be that they were just the hapless victims of devious corporate marketing,” the staffer said.

Whatever the reason (the committee’s majority office didn’t respond to our request for comment), HOH will drink to it — with our washable glass, of course.

Heard on the Hill nailed it, but the plot thickens…

The same Committee held a hearing a few days later on, wait for it … the Regulation of Bottled Water

Energy and Commerce Subcommittee Hearing on "Regulation of Bottled Water"

July 6: The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will hold a hearing on "Regulation of Bottled Water" on Wednesday, July 8, 2009, in 2322 Rayburn House Office Building.  The hearing will examine current federal regulation of bottled water.

FamousDC is happy to report that the Energy and Commerce Committee dropped the water bottles for their hearing on the regulation of water bottles.

They instead used water pitchers.