Barton ‘Apology’ to BP a Gift

“I am ashamed of what happened at the White House yesterday. … It is a tragedy in 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.” – Rep. Joe Barton

Gotcha! That’s the game we’re playing.

Democrats are going after BP (rightfully), but the backdrop is that Democrats are the ones who are in charge and oil continues to flow into the Gulf, no containment in sight. Republicans are standing up for big business, as usual, hoping it will translate into campaign cash.

Today, because Rep. Barton was foolish enough to serve one up, it’s advantage Democrats. It was a priceless moment at the House Energy and Commerce committee. Rep. Barton evidently taking a page from the Michael Steele playbook instead of the Lee Atwater axiom that if you’re adversary is imploding stand back and let him.

Republicans are already walking away, beginning with Rep. Boehner, even asking Barton to resign his leadership position.

“I condemn Mr. Barton’s statement. Mr. Barton’s remarks are out of touch with this tragedy and I feel his comments call into question his judgment and ability to serve in a leadership on the Energy and Commerce Committee,” Miller said in a statement. “He should step down as ranking member of the Committee.”

BP CEO Tony Hayward was able to give a brief and to the point statement, then did what his lawyers told him to do and that is run the clock out, stay on message and lateral everything into the no answer abyss. He did, however, mention that BP is subject to regulations and MMS review; that review lands in the Obama administration’s lap.

As I’ve written many times, the deregulation that started back in the Reagan era, with Bush-Cheney basically staffing MMS with oil cronies, led us to Pres. Obama coming into office inheriting a mess. But if you’re being truthful about this whole event, which no partisan is, it’s not just Bush-Cheney and what Obama inherited that’s the problem. It’s that Pres. Obama and Interior Sect. Salazar continued their practices, which Salazar telegraphed as senator he would do.

Nobody in the Obama administration, least of all Ken Salazar, demanded BP go through an environmental review for the Deepwater Horizon well, something that made news in May, but no one is talking about today:

According to a statement from Kieran Suckling, Executive Director for the Center for Biological Diversity, BP submitted its drilling plan to the MMS on March 10, 2009. Rather than subject the plan to a detailed environmental review before approving it as required by the National Environmental Policy Act, the agency declared the plan to be “categorically excluded” from environmental analysis because it posed virtually no chance of harming the environment. As BP itself pointed out in its April 9, 2010, letter to the Council on Environmental Quality, categorical exclusions are only to be used when a project will have “minimal or nonexistent” environmental impacts.

When is Interior Sect. Salazar going to be back at the hearings on the Hill? Hmmmm? I said this a couple of weeks ago.

Neither political party is doing anything to solve our energy challenges, including Pres. Obama, with more offshore acreage opened under Obama’s watch than any president in history.

To blind partisans this doesn’t matter.

To people who actually believe in the purpose of our federal government and want it to function and do the jobs our tax dollars are meant to cover, which should be every person regardless of party, the fact that Congress and the Executive Branch continue to fail in doing their jobs is why people are so furious at the system.

At some point, when BP has done all they can do, people may wake up and see what happened at the government level, which is currently controlled by Democrats, led by Pres. Obama.

But Barton’s ridiculous, “shameful” comment is a welcome diversion for the moment.

This post has been updated.