Alleged “conservatives” eat their own over Obama’s shakedown of BP.
In the blink of an eye, Texas Rep. Joe Barton handed Democrats just what they wanted: a Republican villain in the oil spill crisis.
“I apologize,” he told BP CEO Tony Hayward — coloring himself “ashamed” that the White House would engage in a “shakedown” to get BP to set up a $20 billion escrow fund to pay damage claims for Gulf Coast businesses and residents.
It would have been bad enough for the GOP if a backbencher had accidentally strayed wildly off message, but Barton, the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is the face of the party on energy policy — and his comments were intentional. So rather than talking about BP’s culpability and the Obama administration’s response, Washington was fixated on a Texas Republican’s seemingly tone-deaf comments.
The damage control was swift and the pushback severe — leaders in Barton’s own party threatened to yank his ranking-member status on the committee. Gulf-state Republicans seethed, and the top three GOP House leaders were compelled to put out a joint statement saying, “Congressman Barton’s statements this morning were wrong.”
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