Well, this was an unforced error:
[Rep. Joe] Barton [R-TX], the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said during opening statements at a hearing in which BP CEO Tony Hayward will testify that President Barack Obama and his administration had created a “slush fund” in the $20 billion fund.
“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,” Barton said.
The fund is a $20 billion escrow account set up with BP funds to help the people whose livelihoods have been destroyed by the oil spill. Robert Gibbs was unmerciful (via email):
Statement by the Press Secretary on Congressman Joe Barton’s Apology to BP
“What is shameful is that Joe Barton seems to have more concern for big corporations that caused this disaster than the fishermen, small business owners and communities whose lives have been devastated by the destruction. Congressman Barton may think that a fund to compensate these Americans is a ‘tragedy’, but most Americans know that the real tragedy is what the men and women of the Gulf Coast are going through right now. Members from both parties should repudiate his comments.”
Boner had better sense:
“They’ve agreed to put this $20 billion dollars in escrow,” Boehner said during an appearance on Fox News. “I don’t know what context Mr. Barton was making that remark, but, I’m glad BP has accepted responsibility for their actions.”
A week ago, Boner appeared to say that the taxpayers should help foot the bill for the cleanup, but is now putting himself at odds with some of his members.
Finally, someone showing a little Christian concern for poor, embattled British Petroleum. With Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, the only thing for certain is a predictable level of batty contrarianism. But this one … She’s getting plenty of attention in some sectors, if not her two local dailies, for her Wednesday comments, which followed the announcement of the $20 billion escrow fund to cover claims coming out of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster. She says that BP, currently turning the Gulf into a waste holding tank, needs to watch out so it doesn’t get played for a “chump” and get “fleeced” by President Obama. The Washington Post’s David Weigel, the paper’s designated reporter for “the conservative movement and the Republican Party,” cornered Bachmann after a Heritage Foundation luncheon. This is where she said: “They shouldn’t have to be fleeced and made chumps to have to pay for perpetual unemployment and all the rest — they’ve got to be legitimate claims. ‘The other thing we have to remember is that Obama loves to make evil whatever company it is that he wants to get more power from. He makes them evil, and what we’ve got to ask ourselves is: Do we really want to be paying $9 for a gallon of gas? Because that could be the final result of this.’ “
I am enjoying the batty contrarianism of politicians who think it’s good politics to stick up for BP.
