The Tale Of Congressman Joe Barton Amused Me

There were so many feeling I had as this story unfolded Thursday.  First, I was shocked at the tin ear of Congressman Joe Barton who could have ever defended the indefensible.  Then I was mighty proud of how the White House struck back.  Later I was amused at how quickly the story was taken as a serious problem by the Republicans.  Next I was hearing of retaliation by the GOP if Barton did not do a Texas two-step on the issue.  Just a most remarkable day in politics.  But it got one better to see how The Wall Street Journal had to write the story this morning.  The paper is not amused by the actions of President Obama when it comes to dealing with BP.   I assume they are not pleased today with the Republicans either.   I cut and pasted the parts of the story pertaining to Barton below.

And when one senior Republican—Rep. Joe Barton of Texas—stepped up to apologize to Mr. Hayward, the backlash was so severe he was forced to apologize for his apology.

Just minutes into the hearing, Mr. Barton, a ranking member of the committee, denounced the Obama Administration for pushing the British oil company to agree Tuesday to put $20 billion into a fund to cover damages caused by the disaster. Mr. Barton called the plan a “slush fund.”

To that point, Mr. Barton’s critique echoed statements by other Republicans. Then he went further.

“I apologize,” Mr. Barton said. “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.”

Rep. Barton left the hearing immediately after making his statement. The aftershocks rumbled throughout the day.

The hearing ground on and on. As the clock crawled toward 5 p.m., Mr. Hayward’s stated positions remained unchanged.

The same couldn’t be said for Mr. Barton. The Texas lawmaker’s apology to Mr. Hayward had touched off a storm. The White House, stung by earlier criticism from Republicans of its $20 billion deal with BP, unloaded with a rare mid-hearing rebuttal to Rep. Barton.

“What is shameful is that Joe Barton seems to have more concern for big corporations that caused this disaster than the fishermen, small-business owners and communities whose lives have been devastated by the destruction,” a White House spokesman said. Vice President Joe Biden called Mr. Barton’s views “incredibly insensitive.”

Republican lawmakers rushed to disassociate themselves from Mr. Barton’s comments. Rep. Jeff Miller, a conservative Republican whose district includes beaches on Florida’s panhandle, called Mr. Barton’s comments “reprehensible” and said he should step down as ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee. “Mr. Barton’s remarks are out of touch with this tragedy,” Mr. Miller said in a written release.

Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the Republican leader in the House, distanced himself from Mr. Barton and his characterization of the fund’s creation as political extortion and said BP ought to pay “every dime” of the damages. Later, Mr. Boehner and other top House Republicans issued a statement saying Mr. Barton’s remarks “were wrong,” and welcoming BP’s “initial pledge of $20 billion” to pay for economic damages.

Mr. Barton was told by the Reps. Boehner and Eric Cantor—the top two House Republicans—”that he needed to apologize immediately, or he would lose his ranking-member seat immediately,” a leadership aide said.

At about 3 p.m., Mr. Barton returned to the hearing room to revise and extend his earlier remarks.

“If anything I have said this morning has been misconstrued to the opposite effect, I want to apologize for that misconstrued misconstruction,” he said.

Then he left the room.