In case it wasn’t obvious how angry the GOP is at Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas., over his statement to embattled
BP CEO Tony Hayward, lawmakers made it perfectly clear on the Sunday talk shows.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on Fox News he “couldn’t disagree with Joe Barton more,” and said “B.P. doesn’t need an apology. They need to apologize to us, and they certainly need to cover all the costs of the cleanup and the economic damages as well. And they’re going — they’re going to.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said on CNN’s State of the Union that Barton’s comments “Couldn’t be more wrong, couldn’t be more wrong.”
Democrats kept the Barton apology alive, calling his remarks evidence of the Republican ties to the oil industry.
On ABC’s This Week, when host Jake Tapper showed White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel a poll indicating only 37 percent of voters support Obama’s economic policies, Emanuel revived the Barton remark and all but promising it will be used as a campaign weapon as the Democrats struggle to hold onto seats in the upcoming midterm election.
“There is a choice that Joe Barton has offered the American people, a philosophy for the Republican Party, which is that BP is the aggrieved party,” Emanuel said. “In the coming weeks, you’ll see the president speak to the country about these competing different philosophies.”
During a hearing about the oil spill, Barton told Hayward he was sorry about the manner in which the White House secured a $20 billion fund to compensate the victims of the oil spill. Barton called the arrangement a “shakedown.”
