Texas Congressman’s Apology to BP Denounced by Party

[Xipe Totec]

Source: Bloomberg Business Week

U.S. Representative Joe Barton may be the only person who had a worse day on Capitol Hill yesterday than BP Plc Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward.

The Texas Republican sparked a political backlash from both parties when he apologized to Hayward -- at a hearing where other lawmakers lined up to berate BP -- and accused the White House of a “shakedown” by pressuring BP to set aside $20 billion for damage claims from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Barton retracted his comments hours later after a meeting with House Minority Leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor, a Virginia Republican. The party leaders told Barton to apologize immediately or lose his position as ranking Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, said a party leadership aide who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The outcry illustrates Republicans’ difficulty in gaining political ground, even during a low period for President Barack Obama, as the party struggles to conquer internal divisions, said Julian Zelizer, a political science professor at Princeton University in New Jersey.

Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-18/texas-congressman-s-apology-to-bp-denounced-by-party-update1-.html

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:rofl:

[saigon68]

1. On his knees to BP

[awoke_in_2003]

2. I am shocked...

that the party is denouncing him. Figured they would applaud his statement.

[Downtown Hound]

5. Privately, many of them probably are. n/t

[awoke_in_2003]

7. good point. nt

[Uncle Joe]

3. The problem for the Republican Party is their political positions have no real world moral basis

to sustain it.

They've sold their soul to the ideology of corporate supremacy over that of "We the People's" government and by extension over the American People.

The biggest mistake Barton made was in expressing their true ideology to the stark, cold, light of day, so the rest must disassociate them selves from his statement and scurry back to the shadows; protecting their open, secret, corporatist advocacy.

Thanks for the thread, Xipe Totec.

[DeSwiss]

4. Exactly.

K&R

[AndyA]

6. GOP = Grand OIL Party. Facts matter, and actions say a lot more than empty words.

The Republicans are the best friend big business ever had. And the American people are suffering because of that relationship.

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[McCamy Taylor]

8. Oops!

[Jakes Progress]

10. It had to be one of those "Did I say that out loud?" moments.

[Xipe Totec]

11. Michelle Bachmann and Rand Paul did not get the memo

They're still defending him...

[Child_Of_Isis]

12. Or he thought he was going to get a standing ovation. n/t

[Jakes Progress]

13. The jack asses in his district

would give him one.

[guitar man]

14. They are running from this

But we must not let them hide from it. What is going on in the gulf is the DIRECT RESULT of 30 years of misguided policy fostered by conservative politics. Their disdain for any kind of oversight, regulation or responsibility when it comes to big business has lead us precisely to where we are today.

Anybody who tried to warn of the dangers of the reckless policy fostered by Reagan and continued by his successors has been villified in the nastiest of terms by the right wing corporate bullhorn. Enough is enough, it's time to indelibly mark this type of thinking as a miserable failure for all time and move on with something different. The world cannot afford to indulge their childish fantasies any longer. :grr: