Warning: Constant ABSPATH already defined in /home/public/wp-config.php on line 27
As Slimey As They Get — Why Now?
On-line Opinion Magazine…OK, it's a blog
Random header image... Refresh for more!

As Slimey As They Get

by Bryan

McClatchy reports that GOP’s Barton apologizes to BP, accuses Obama of ‘shakedown’

WASHINGTON — A day after top BP officials met with President Barack Obama at the White House and agreed to set up a $20 billion compensation fund, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas called the money a “shakedown” of the company and apologized for the president’s action.

Barton, the ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce committee, told BP CEO Tony Hayward Thursday morning that he was sorry about what the president had done. The money is a “slush fund,” Barton said, and “unprecedented in our nation’s history.”

“I do not want to live in a country where anything a citizen or corporation does something that is … wrong is subject to some sort of political pressure, that again, in my words, amounts to a shakedown,” said Barton.

In case there was any doubt about Joe Barton’s interests, he is concerned that the government might require him to put money in escrow if the gas well he owns part of should blow out. Obviously the $100K/year he makes from natural gas is more important than the “small people” on the Gulf Coast.

If there were anything approaching ethics in Congress, Barton wouldn’t be assigned to a committee with such an obvious conflict of interest, but IOKIYAR.

It would be easier if we required Congresscritters to wear team jerseys, Red for Republicans and Blue for Democrats, with the logos of their corporate sponsors on them.

6 comments

1 hipparchia { 06.17.10 at 10:09 pm }

what color would the dinos be, maroon?

2 Bryan { 06.17.10 at 10:28 pm }

Maroon would be good, it works on several levels 😉

3 Kryten42 { 06.18.10 at 9:44 pm }

LOL Yeah! I like Maroon! 😉

Have you seen this? From TP:

EXCLUSIVE: BP Funds Front Group Claiming Oil Spill Jobs Are Better Than ‘Normal’ Ones, Storm Will Clean Up Oil

One get’s to a point where nothing surprises any longer, and there are no point to words.

4 Bryan { 06.18.10 at 11:31 pm }

Yeah, a storm is going to clean it, just like the rain takes care of a concrete driveway if you car has an oil leak – what maroons…

There always seem to be money to fund these whackoes, not matter what they are pushing.

Great jobs – sure, all those charter boat captains out of Destin harbor really wanted to spend years getting together the money for their vessels so they could be someone else’s employees./ sarcasm

5 Kryten42 { 06.19.10 at 10:43 am }

Possibly the only *positive* to come from the Horizon disaster is that it’s verry easy to spot the *bought and paid for* politicians now.

Gulf Spill Highlights Republicans Who Are ‘Owned, Bought And Paid By The Oil Industry’

Pivoting off Rep. Joe Barton’s (R-TX) apology to BP CEO Tony Hayward for what he called a “shakedown” from the White House, the Washington Post noted yesterday that “the episode showed the uncomfortable spot in which some Republicans find themselves”:

[S]ome Republicans are having trouble bringing themselves to say anything bad about an industry that has been so good to them. It was notable that in their statement distancing themselves from Barton, House Republican leaders John A. Boehner (Ohio), Eric Cantor (Va.) and Mike Pence (Ind.) referred to the spill — caused by the explosion of an oil rig — as a “natural” disaster.

The oil industry “has deep pockets, and they have a long history of supporting Republicans,” said political consultant John Weaver, a former strategist for John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. “Like any kind of addiction, it’s a terribly difficult thing to break.”

LOL

6 Bryan { 06.19.10 at 4:25 pm }

That applies to Democrats as well as Republicans, and all of them should pay the price.

The only “natural disaster” was the recent lightning strike, because everyone not directly employed by BP on the Deepwater Horizon felt BP was on the road to disaster.