Barton’s three different apologies

[nmbluesky]

***For Republicans, yesterday might have been their worst day since health care passed in March. Barton’s statement that BP's $20 billion fund was a White House “shakedown,” and then his apology to BP, made it seem that he was more concerned about the oil company than about relief for Gulf residents. Barton’s “shakedown”/"slush fund" remark wasn't isolated. Republicans Tom Price and Michele Bachmann said similar things about the $20 billion account, and a writer from the Heritage Foundation also justified Barton’s comments. But realizing that political damage had been done, GOP House leaders -- who rarely back down from a political fight with the administration -- said that Barton was wrong and threatened to strip his plum position on the House Energy Committee if he didn’t retreat. The Texas congressman eventually apologized twice (once for being misconstrued, the other time retracting his apology to BP).

*** The week’s inflection point: Looking back at the past week, the White House might have been right: The week did serve as an inflection point in its handling of the BP spill. A two-day visit to the Gulf, a primetime Oval Office speech (though panned by pundits), the $20 billion BP escrow account, and GOP Rep. Joe Barton’s gift yesterday to Democrats all served to change the direction of the story about the spill -- at least temporarily. In Washington, the questions “Why isn’t the administration doing more?” or “Is Obama on top of this situation?” or “Will BP pay for the damages?” have died down.

*** “Plug the damn hole”: What remains, however, is this central question: “When will the leak finally be stopped?” Only until that is answered will the spill no longer be a political problem for the White House. As one Democratic strategist emails First Read: "Obama could go on WWE and pin Tony Hayward to the mat and it wouldn't matter. We stop the leak and I think the improving political environment for us starts to get more notice" -- referring to better economic news and the GOP’s slate of very conservative candidates this fall.

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/06/18/4527727-first-thoughts-the-weeks-inflection-point