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Home Front: Politix
Republican Backpedals From Apology to BP
2010-06-19
The raw fact is, it was a shakedown, regardless of the fact that Barton was bullied into retracting his statement. B.O. blatantly demanded money that he could hand out from BP or they would face consequences. It was the action of a seedy politician, not an act of leadership. It did zip to clear up the oil spill.

BP is on the hook to pay for cleanup efforts and they're on the hook to compensate people they've damaged economically. B.O.'s actually made it harder to get anything over that $20B amount, since that was what he was willing to settle for. And they call this guy "brilliant."

The Publican leadership shows itself yet again as being spineless and unprincipled. With them still in place, we can count on them, should the Publicans take back the House in November, bending over backward to "govern from the center," which translates into indulging their Dem colleagues and any mainstream press that hasn't gone out of business by then.
Representative Joe L. Barton had to be truly sorry by the time he apologized for his apology on Thursday.

In the four hours between his televised apology to BP -- for what he called a $20 billion "shakedown" by President Obama for loss claims in the gulf oil spill -- and his apology for that apology, Mr. Barton, a Republican from Texas, had been pummeled in the blogosphere, assailed by Democratic Party operatives and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., and, in the blow that landed, threatened by Republican leaders with being yanked from the party's top seat on the powerful House energy committee.

By day's end, the Barton sideshow had become the main show in Congress, eclipsing the much-anticipated grilling of BP's chief executive, Tony Hayward, by members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

"I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday," Mr. Barton said in his opening statement. "I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown -- in this case a $20 billion shakedown."

Democrats, smelling blood in an election year, sought to make Mr. Barton an exemplar for Republican ties to "Big Oil." House Republican leaders, fearing that trap, rushed to contain the damage.

Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader, and Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the Republican whip, summoned Mr. Barton and he "was told to apologize, immediately, or he would lose his spot, immediately," a senior aide said. "We'll see what happens going forward."

When Mr. Barton soon did issue a statement of contrition, Mr. Boehner's office also distributed it, for added effect. Then Mr. Boehner, Mr. Cantor and another party leader, Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, together publicly rebuked their colleague.

Mr. Barton, in his statement, apologized "for using the term 'shakedown' " to describe the $20 billion escrow account that BP and the White House announced Wednesday. He also retracted the apology to BP and said the company "should bear the full financial responsibility for the accident on their lease in the Gulf of Mexico" on April 20 and "fully compensate those families and businesses that have been hurt."
Posted by:Fred

#6  Few could deny the PERCEPTION of strong arming or "insurance" against future DoJ actions certainly exists. Why must we permit negative perceptions when they could have been so easily avoided? I'm frankly bored of snooker.
Posted by: Besoeker   2010-06-19 14:07  

#5  It is going to be an interesting Congress next year when the Tea Partiers arrive. A lot of them like to tell it as it is also. It would be interesting to know what Chris Christie thought about this.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2010-06-19 12:47  

#4  "Shakedown" is much too strong a word. More like insurance - you know, "protection" from unfortunate political reactions by the White House.
Posted by: DMFD   2010-06-19 07:56  

#3  Barton is guilty of bad optics. Boehner, Pense and Cantor are guilty of failure of imagination to find a way to make the legitimate point in a politically palatable manner.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2010-06-19 07:52  

#2  Now, now, RJ. Most of it will be spend on people---who vote the right ticket. As to the rest, don't muzzle the ox, etc...
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2010-06-19 03:41  

#1  "Shakedown" seems exactly the right word here, want to bet how much winds up in the Democrats coffers and how much (If Any) goes to the affected people.
My bet is zero.
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2010-06-19 00:17  

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