Barton's BP Apology: Revealing What the GOP Really Thinks
It's hard not to enjoy watching Rep. Joe Barton (R-BP) squirm. As you must know by now, the Texas GOPer put a super-sized foot in his mouth at a congressional hearing on Thursday, when he apologized to BP CEO Tony Hayward and said that he was "ashamed" of the Obama administration's effort to push the oil firm into agreeing to set up a $20 billion escrow fund that would pay out compensation claims. Within nanoseconds, Democrats were sending out press releases slamming Barton, the senior Republican on the House energy and commerce committee. This was great ammo, for the Ds pointed out that Barton could become chair of this House committee, which oversees BP actions, should the GOP gain control of the House in the fall elections. The talking point was an obvious one: do you want a BP apologist to be in charge of investigating and monitoring BP's actions in the Gulf and elsewhere?
This was an issue ready-made for the Dems to use in the 2010 congressional elections. (The attack ad virtually writes itself.) The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the party arm in charge of House elections, immediately launched Facebook ads and a petition calling on Barton to apologize. At a White House briefing, Vice President Joe Biden and press secretary Robert Gibbs blasted Barton, with Gibbs suggesting other GOPers should ask him to leave the energy and commerce committee. Toward the end of the afternoon, Barton apologized for his apology--sort of.
That won't--and shouldn't--end the matter. Because Barton had not committed a gaffe. With his initial remarks, he had merely shared with the world what he really believed. More important, he had said what other Republicans believe. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), a Tea Party darling, derided the account as a "redistribution-of-wealth fund" and "one more gateway for more government control." The Republican Study Committee, a collection of over 115 House conservatives, dubbed the fund a "Chicago-style political shakedown"--terminology Barton used during his apology to BP. Barton's quasi-retracted remark was no accident; it was the airing of strong partisan and ideological sentiments shared by his GOP comrades. They really see the Obama administration as the evildoers in its face-off with poor, transnational BP. Are they motivated by a infinite love of the marketplace and corporations or driven by a knows-no-bounds hatred of Obama? Ultimately, it doesn't matter, because they end up in the same spot: in sympathy with the biggest despoiler of the environment in US history.
Here's what Jack Kerouac called a "naked lunch" moment: when you see what's really on the tip of the fork. Barton and his colleagues were expressing the pro-corporate perspective long nurtured on the right. Look at how the Heritage Foundation's blog put it: "Joe Barton is Right." Barton, it noted,
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http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/06/18/bartons-bp-apology-revealing-what-the-gop-really-thinks/