Texas Rep. Joe Barton Apologizes to BP!

Whether or not you agree on who's to blame for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the republican reaction leaves no doubt that they think protecting the assets of BP is more important than restoring the livelihood of the people who depend on the Gulf.

At a hearing of the Energy and Commerce Committee, intended to call BP CEO Tony Hayward on the carpet, Representative Joe Barton (R-Tex) said "I am ashamed of what happened at the White House yesterday," referring to Obama's demand that BP set up a $20 billion dollar relief fund for oil-spill victims.

Barton continued: "I apologize, I do not want to live in a country where any time a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong is subject to some sort of political pressure that is - again, in my words, amounts to a shakedown, So I apologize." He referred to the fund as "a tragedy of enormous proportion," insinuating that it would prevent BP from making money. Earlier this week, he referred to the criticism of BP as "Monday morning quarterbacking," and repeated the urban myth that China is drilling in the Gulf. (For the record, China is NOT drilling off the coast of Florida or Cuba, this is another lie that's been repeated over and over for more than three years. See Politifact.)

Some clarification on Barton's motives, who happens to be the top republican in the House Energy and Commerce Committee? Well, he's a former ARCO executive, and the single largest recipient of oil money in the Congress over the past 20 years. His largest contributor is Anadarko Petroleum, who owns 25% of the Deepwater Horizon well. Can you say fox in the henhouse!

Outrage from both parties resulted in Barton's retracting his statement hours later, where he apologized for using the word "shakedown." He then went on to say, ""I want the record to be absolutely clear that I think BP is responsible for this accident," he said. "If anything I said this morning has been misconstrued, in opposite effect, I want to apologize for that misconstruction."

Misconstrued? MISCONSTRUED?! Excuse me, how can the word "shakedown" be "misconstrued?" And despite the fact the republican leadership exacted immediate damage control, in their statement they referred to the oil spill as a "natural disaster." "The oil spill in the Gulf is this nation's largest natural disaster and stopping the leak and cleaning up the region is our top priority." Here is what other conservatives are saying about the fund and BP's responsibility:

The Republican Study Committee, a group of conservative members of the House, released a statement calling the $20 billion BP escrow account a "Chicago-style political shakedown." (See full statement here.) For the record, nearly two-thirds of the republicans in the house are members of this committee.

According to The Minnesota Independent, Tea Party candidate Michelle Bachman (R-Minn) said the fund was a "permanent ATM card," redistribution of the wealth," and accused the administration of increasing federal efforts to "take over private industry" and of "fleecing" BP.

Last week, U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue said BP should not have to foot the whole cleanup bill, that the government (ergo, the taxpayers) should also pay. Republican Minority Leader John Boehner told TPMDC's Brian Beutler that he agreed with Donohue.

Rep. Sen. John Cornyn, chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), said he 'shares' Barton's concern," accusing Obama of using the BP disaster to "mitigate" his own political problems," saying the President is trying to show "how tough he's being against BP." (Well, gee, guys, you handed it to him on a silver platter!)

Mississippi's Republican Governor Haley Barbour told Fox News that he worries that the fund will cut into BP's profits, making them, "...less able to pay us what they owe us." Considering that BP is going to make payments into this fund by installment, it shouldn't cut into their annual $30 billion cash flow.

Rush Limbaugh called it a "bailout." (Not that any sane person cares what he says.)

And last, but never least, Sarah Palin stated on the O'Reilly Factor, ""[W]e can't afford to demonize these energy producers to such an extent, though, that they go under. We do need to work with them, though, but we need to verify everything it is and hold them accountable for all that they have done in this situation." [The O'Reilly Factor, 6/15/10]. Okay, you translate it. I only speak English.

There is certainly enough blame to go around for this disaster, with BP, Transocean and Halliburton at the top of the list. There are those who argue that it's Obama's fault for not regulating the regulators. There are those who fault the Bush-era regulators for not doing their job. There are those who blame the environmentalists for driving the wells so far out. But the republicans aren't doing themselves any favors by seeming to defend BP.

When two-thirds of the republicans in the house belong to a committee who thinks taxpayers should help foot the bill for this disaster, I say they have revealed their true colors. They are more concerned with oil company profits, the oil companies in which they are invested and who donate to their campaigns. And while Barton was publicly taken to the wood shed and forced to apologize, I would bet my house that many conservatives hunkered around their kitchen tables last night in heated defense of Barton's remarks.

This was not a natural disaster like Katrina. This is a man-made disaster, caused by BP putting the bottom line above safety, operating rigs based on unfinished engineering drawings and not making sure that simple things were taken care of, like making sure the battery that runs the shut off valves wasn't dead. They've also lied from the beginning about the amount of oil escaping. While they admitted on June 17th that 60,000 barrels a day is spewing, they've known that for over a month,, but repeatedly released numbers far below that.

Personally, I think twenty billion is going to prove a drop in the bucket when it comes to righting this disaster. Anyone with any misdirected sympathy towards BP should perhaps try to explain it to the shrimpers, fishermen and fishing charter companies, or the folks who livelihoods depend on tourism. Some of these businesses won't recover for decades. Or go down to the Gulf and help bury the dead wildlife. Or pat future flood victims on the back with a "there, there" when the wetlands destroyed by this spill are no longer able to protect their properties from hurricanes. And, oh, yeah, don't forget to visit the families of those eleven dead oil workers.

Sources: Barton apology draws outrage; BP Chief "Out of Loop"; Barton Retracts Apology; Conservatives call escrow account "Chicago Style Shakedown"; BP Escrow fund Obama's Permanent ATM Card; Taxpayers Should pay for clean up; Cornyn Shares Barton's Concern; Barbour, Bachmann Explain Principles for Holding BP Accountable; BP Quiet on Escrow Demand