House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) condemned remarks Thursday by Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) in which he apologized to BP for the treatment the company has faced by the government.
“The oil spill in the Gulf is this nation’s largest natural disaster and stopping the leak and cleaning up the region is our top priority. Congressman Barton’s statements this morning were wrong,” the three said in a joint statement. “BP itself has acknowledged that responsibility for the economic damages lies with them and has offered an initial pledge of $20 billion dollars for that purpose.”
Forcing Barton to apologize just made us look like fools.
The 3 Cowards!!
Ping!
Let's not lose it over this one. Defending BP is political suicide and it is the democrats dream that Republicans go for it. They already are trying to claim all Republicans think BP is the victim here.
An angry listener critical of Republicans for caving called Rush on this yesterday and Rush (who was talking this same theme previously) explained to him that he (Rush) does not have to get elected and that defending BP would cause election problems, and that he (Rush) didn't mean to defend BP. I normally rip Republicans for folding but pushing this line of argument is pointless given BP is the bad guy. Especially for a party that generally supported TARP when they were in power.
Better to defend against energy taxes and drilling restrictions against other energy companies that had nothing to do with this leak.
DumBO cannot allow a $20 billion slush fund to not benefit his friends, so, the applicants for oil spill relief will be paid in new GM/Chrysler cars.
Stupid: Apologizing to BP for it.
Apologizing to BP is like apologizing to a notorious armed robber because the police roughed him up during the arrest. It distracts from the point you are trying to make.