Something fishy! (getty photo)
Oh, Joe Barton. The gentleman from Texas today apologized to BP executives at a hearing of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and called the $20 billion escrow deal a “shakedown.” From CBS News:
“I’m ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday,” Barton said. “I think 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 shakedown.”
Saying he spoke for himself and not the Republican Party, Barton continued:
“I apologize,” Barton added. “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.”
Ok. What?? Beltway woke up this morning thinking: More Carl-Henric Svanberg! That guy was classic, and the berserk response to his unfortunate (yet colorful) “small people” remarks was both predictable and typical of the always tedious culture of umbrage.
Until now, we thought Svanberg’s slightly menacing, square-jawed intensity in the West Wing driveway was going to be the most entertaining, off-script episode of what we’re calling the BP Tour of Contrition. But — Joe Barton! Apologizing? Really?
Even more unexpected, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs fired back with a statement. Usually, the White House prefers to let Republican members of Congress step in it all on their own without assistance or remark. But apparently, this couldn’t wait for the daily briefing:
“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,” Gibbs said. “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.”
Svanberg, with some small people (nyt photo)
