Dems thankful for Joe Barton
Joe Barton is the best thing that’s happened to Democrats since John McCain plucked Sarah Palin from obscurity. Barton is that loose-tongued Texas Republican who boldly apologized to the C.E.O. of BP, because President Obama happened to do right by the people who are (and will be) suffering because of BP’s oil disaster.
To Barton, BP’s promise to write checks worth $20 billion is nothing more than a “shakedown.”
“I’m ashamed of what happened in the White House,” Barton told BP’s Tony Hayward.
But Barton wasn’t as ashamed of the White House, as some of his fellow Republicans were of him. Some of them apparently got to him and told him he’d just laid a golden campaign egg for Democrats.
Barton apologized to BP in the morning. He apologized for apologizing to BP in the afternoon. By then, though, it was clear to every reporter in Washington that Barton had meant the former apology much more than the latter.
The race was on to unmask Barton and the true motives of Republicans who appear to be more concerned about protecting business and playing petty politics, than in protecting the people they serve.
It didn’t take long. The words “Chicago-style shakedown,” had been sent out the day before in a memo concocted by the Republican Study Committee.
That committee is comprised of 115 conservative House Republicans, who got caught taking the side of big oil over their constituents.
Barton knows how to do that. He’s gotten $1,448,380 in campaign cash from oil and gas interests since he’s been in Congress.
Coincidentally, or maybe not so coincidentally, Barton (a onetime consultant for Atlantic Richland Oil and Gas Co.) has as his leading campaign contributor, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. ($146,500), which has a 25 percent interest in the well where the oil rig exploded on April 20.
Republicans immediately sensed Barton’s honest (first apology) stuck more than his second (half-hearted) apology. They had to disavow that “shakedown” attack.
“I think that was a dumb statement,” claimed Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby.
Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell (no friend of the White House, or anything that comes out of it), knows there’s no benefit in defending BP. “I couldn’t disagree with Joe Barton more,” he told Fox News’ Chris Wallace.
Well what do you expect him to say? He knows Barton will soon star in dozens of Democratic campaign commercials.
What’s lost in all of this is just how strange the use of words like “shakedown” and “extortion” are, considering how previous presidents and their Justice Depts.. exerted their influence to get companies to pay-up for their corporate sins.
Barton should have taken a close look at the House Judiciary Committee’s list of 85 “Deferred Prosecution Agreements” that were won by the Bush Administration.
That’s 85 with a capital 85. Funny, I don’t remember any Republicans calling any of those a “shakedown.”
It makes you wonder what Barack Obama has done to cause some Republicans to speak gibberish as their primary language.
If Obama singlehandedly captures Osama Bin Laden, though, it’ll be Republican Study Committee member and flamethrower Michele Bachmann, who’ll send the Bin Laden family the first sympathy card.
She’d rushed to get her two cents on the record by claiming Obama’s efforts were, “a misreading of the constitution. Now it seems it’s all about extortion.”
That was on June 16. By June 19, she told Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, “No one is saying the fund shouldn’t be established.” Well what about that constitution you keep defending?
O’Reilly was uncharacteristically kind to the White House’s efforts when he said, “President Obama should be applauded for getting BP to pony up $20 billion. In fact, that’s the best thing the president has done in the whole mess.”
He told Bachmann there’s really nothing wrong with the president bringing the power of his presidency to bear when getting BP to pay for their mess.
Bachmann agreed. Less than ten seconds later, though, she said Obama shouldn’t strong arm them. She’d agreed with Obama – then she disagreed with herself.
I rest my case.
Edward A. Owens is a three-time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net