It was a shakedown—why was it so wrong to say that?

If you haven’t seen it, I recommend that you watch Rep. Joseph Barton’s statement in the House Energy subcommittee to BP head Hayward that started all the ruckus. Other than Barton’s “apology” to Hayward for the White House shakedown, which was silly and inappropriate, the rest of his statement is fine. He clearly and repeatedly states that BP is responsible for the accident and the damage it has caused. He is not in any way mitigating BP’s responsibility and liability. His sole point is to express his alarm and outrage that the president of the United States has essentially extorted billions of dollars from a private corporation for that president to use as he wishes. Minority Leader Boehner and Minority Whip Cantor should have corrected Barton on the “apology,” while backing him up on his substantive point about the shakedown. Instead they panicked and soon lost all control, turning an insignificant matter of wrong word choice into a big embarassment and defeat for the Republicans.

Here are some comments on the Barton affair at Lucianne.com that I like:

Reply 2 - Posted by: kanphil, 6/19/2010 9:23:25 PM (No. 6617460)

Joe Barton was right. He was not letting BP off the hook, he was apologizing for the hooligan style extortion of the Obama White House. He was absolutely correct to do so. The stupidity of John Boehner and [Eric] Cantor is what handed the issue to the democrats. Boehner should have helped clarify Barton’s remarks and supported him. I would not like to share a foxhole with Boehner. He bugged out on one of the staunchest conservatives in the House. This is a good illustration of why I will not give another penny to Republican national leadership. I will support local candidates of my choosing, not those foist on me by a pusillanimous, feckless national Republican organization.

Reply 6 - Posted by: hicokid, 6/19/2010 9:38:34 PM (No. 6617489)

Poster - I agree with Barton. Why is that no Republican has his back when he could have said it a little better? Also, he’s no moron. He’s the only degreed engineer that I know of in congress.

Reply 9 - Posted by: M2, 6/19/2010 9:45:20 PM (No. 6617501)

I emailed Barton’s office and told him he should NEVER have apologized for telling the truth.

How come Democrat Etheridge, who assaulted a student, live and on camera, isn’t called to any sort of accountability? Yet when Barton tells the truth, it’s a huge deal and he is being vilified by the Left AND by his own Party, which is shameful.

I also emailed rnc.org about their horrid vilification of Barton while doing nothing about Etheridge.

Reply 10 - Posted by: M2, 6/19/2010 9:48:16 PM (No. 6617506)

How many of the posters here have actually DONE something about this? Like maybe contacting Barton to support him? Or contacting the RNC to take them to the woodshed for not backing Barton up? Or contacting your reps demanding they support Barton for telling the truth?

It’s easy to complain. Do something.

Reply 18 - Posted by: Delilah, 6/19/2010 11:40:04 PM (No. 6617658)

Barton didn’t enrage this former Republican, the Republican leadership did and thereby lost me as a contributing member. I am so sick of their bowing and scraping before the libs I could puke.

Reply 24 - Posted by: dman, 6/20/2010 8:17:59 AM (No. 6618157)

I agree with above posters. Repubs should have backed away from the apology aspect, while backing up Barton’s basic premise. Removing him from the committee is suicidal on GOP’s part. This morning the Dems are making the “big oil” link anyway. Now the idiot Republicans have the worst of both worlds.

Reply 33 - Posted by: Sinatra5, 6/20/2010 9:10:23 AM (No. 6618274)

Contrast the repub wankers we have in DC like Cantor, Boehner, et al - against the likes of Palin, Brewer, and Christie and you’ll see how far we have to go to not only take back DC, but the party of the country club repubs as well. Look, Barton was right - it was a shakedown. It’s time we called …”a spade a spade”… and acknowledge the fact that BO & Co. are as crooked as they come - and push back. No more Bush rope- a- dope. I thought we learned our lesson, but obviously not.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 20, 2010 01:54 PM | Send