Republican apologizes to BP for 'shakedown' by government

[kpete]

Source: The Hill


Republican apologizes to BP for 'shakedown' by government
By Michael O'Brien and Ben Geman - 06/17/10 10:26 AM ET

A top Republican lawmaker apologized to BP on Thursday for what he said was a "shakedown" by the government of the oil company in forcing it to create a $20 billion fund to pay out damages resulting from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce, said that the relief fund that President Barack Obama had forced the company to create was, in essence, a "slush fund."

“It is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown, in this case a $20 billion dollar shakedown,” Barton said during opening remarks at a hearing today at which BP CEO Tony Hayward will testify.

Hayward, BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg and other top executives from the company met with Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and other administration officials to discuss the nearly two-month-old spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which resulted from an explosion on a BP rig that triggered a leak in a BP pipeline.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/103801-top-republican-apologizes-to-bp-for-shakedown-by-government

[BeyondGeography]

1. AP jumps on it

Yay.

[Captain Hilts]

2. Republicans are the gift that just keeps giving and giving.....nt

[Beetwasher]

3. Just When I Think They Can't Outdo The Stupid

[Ishoutandscream2]

4. No kidding

Hey, but at least Republicans like Barton aren't hypocrites.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

5. And I hope mere of them join him. This needs to be exposed......

:rofl: :evilgrin:

[saigon68]

27. They can't bite the organ they are fellating

That's how the repukes get their $$$$$$

[truebrit71]

6. What a mucking foron...

..talk about being on the wrong side of an issue..

[ladywnch]

7. come on, give the rethugs credit.....

....it's not easy to speak/apologize while sucking someone off!

[DirkGently]

8. Jesus. He and Bachmann must be drinking the same

Kool-Aid this week.

Bachmann to BP: Don't 'be chumps'
Speaking at a Heritage Foundation luncheon today, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) lit into President Obama, accusing him of "voting present" on the Gulf Coast disaster and serving up an "infantile" political response instead of focusing on plugging BP's broken well.

Afterward, I asked Bachmann if she supported the effort within Congress to lift a cap on BP's liability and ensure that the oil company pays for all claims once the disaster is over.

"They have to lift the liability cap," said Bachmann. "But if I was the head of BP, I would let the signal get out there -- 'We're not going to be chumps, and we're not going to be fleeced.' And they shouldn't be. They shouldn't have to be fleeced and make chumps to have to pay for perpetual unemployment and all the rest -- they've got to be legitimate claims.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/6/16/876343/-Bachmann-update:-the-real-victim-here-could-be-BP

[EFerrari]

9. Why does Joe Barton hate America?

[howmad1]

26. Naw, he doesn't hate America.

He's just giving "Murkins" exactly what the dumb asses want to hear. Let's see how these rethuglicans fare in November. Bet they still will take Congress.

[Mimosa]

10. What a treacherous anti-American PIG Barton is n/t

[City Lights]

11. Shout it from the rooftops!

The GOP stands with BP!

Their stupidity know no bounds! :rofl:

[Courtesy Flush]

12. These are the same guys who don't want government to pay anything

So if not the government, and not the industry at fault, then who?

[Uncle Joe]

15. They believe in the economic law of the jungle, if you get eat up by the big carnivores, you should

just enjoy the process of becoming future corporate fertilizer.

Thanks for the thread, Courtesy Flush.

[ck4829]

13. That poor, poor corporation. Almost brings a tear to your eye.

Not.

[TalkingDog]

14. I said this last night, but in a bumpersticker form.... some were not amused.....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8577257

[kenfrequed]

16. This guy should be politically crucified for this.

I can already see a commercial. Fishermen, tourism, wildlife, shrimpers, and eleven oil men? no for them it wasn't a tragedy. Representative Barton considers it a tragedy of the first order when you have to pay a small fraction of the cost of clean up.

[Wednesdays]

18. Are you kidding? In this region of the country?

Shoot, he'll win re-election in a landslide, just for "fighting the homosexual agenda" alone. :puke:

[WatchWhatISay]

It is not just Joe Barton that is doing it

They are all going to used this hearing to say the same thing, over and over.

[WatchWhatISay]

17. It is not just Joe Barton that is doing it

They are all going to used this hearing to say the same thing, over and over.

[flakey_foont]

19. ah geez!

what a maroon! what an ignoranomous!


what a stupid, stupid thing to say!!

[Crunchy Frog]

20. The tragic and cruel victimization of a private corporation by the evil gub'mint.

If the Republicans get back into power we'll never hear of another such travesty again.

[mbperrin]

21. Says the Representative from Atlantic Richfield.

meh

[Trillo]

22. Law abiding citizens get shaken down by government all the fricken time.

Nobody in government apologizes for that.

[RamboLiberal]

23. White House reaction

Statement by the Press Secretary on Congressman Joe Barton's Apology to BP

"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. Congressman Barton may think that a fund to compensate these Americans is a 'tragedy', but most Americans know that the real tragedy is what the men and women of the Gulf Coast are going through right now. Members from both parties should repudiate his comments."

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/06/just_lethal.php#more

[yowzayowzayowza]

24. Thank you for the compliment Representative Barton,

you slimy worm.

[superconnected]

28. slimy as an oil slick.

[superconnected]

25. Somebody tell that man to quit ogling big business. It's like he's on his knees worhipping the oil

companies. Heck, it's not an apology so much as a beg for forgiveness for all of our audacity to want BP to pay for the damage. Will the oil god pardon him? Doubt it.

[tanyev]

29. They're going to have to change his nickname from Smokey Joe to Oily Joe.