Extreme Antics at the Gulf Hearing

Yesterdays grilling of Tony Hayward, BP CEO, had two stars.  The first was Hayward himself.  I have not seen such overt obfuscation since Alberto Gonzales was grilled on the firing of US Attorneys, because they refused to file bogus prosecutions against Democratic office seeker shortly before elections.  Hayward did not know, could not remember, was not part of the decision making process, and could not comment until BP’s internal investigation is complete.  I have some entertaining video that hasn’t made the news shows, but I’ll save that for last.

The second was Ranking Member Joe Barton.

In a jarring departure that caught fellow Republicans by surprise, Barton, the top GOP member of the panel, used his opening statement to apologize — twice — for the pressure put on the company by President Barack Obama to contribute to a compensation fund for people in the afflicted Gulf of Mexico states…

…Barton said the U.S. has “a due process system” to assess such damages, and he decried the $20 billion fund that BP agreed to Wednesday at the White House as a “shakedown” and “slush fund.” Since 1990, oil and gas industry political action committees and employees have given more than $1.4 million to Barton’s campaigns, the most of any House member during that period, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <AP/Google>

Here’s the Barton video.

Barton was not the only Republican to betray BP’s victims on the corporate behalf.  In addition to Michelle “Batshit” Bachmann, Haley “Oily” Barbour and John “Bad-Tan-Limp” Boehner, a few more spoke out for BP.

Last night, the Republican Study Committee (RSC), the largest [GOP delinked] caucus of Republican House members, fired off a statement declaring that the $20 billion dollar negotiated by BP and the Obama administration for victims of the oil catastrophe in the gulf is a “Chicago-Style Political Shakedown. [GOP delinked]” Echoing this sentiment, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) told BP executives that he is “sorry” for Obama’s “shakedown” of their company.

This morning, ThinkProgress traveled to Capitol Hill to interview lawmakers about the escrow fund. Several members of Congress, like Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), agreed with the RSC’s criticism of the fund. Even though Fleming’s home state of Louisiana has been devastated by BP’s spill, Fleming attacked the administration for not trusting BP and for daring to “take control of all the money from BP.” Asked about Barton’s apology to BP, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) said any lawmaker has a right to “do what they want”:

TP: He announced the $20 billion dollar escrow fund, funded by BP, to compensate some of the victims of this catastrophe. The Republican Study Committee put out a press release last night saying it’s a Chicago style power grab, do you agree with that sentiment?

FLEMING: I do because what we have seen from this administration is whenever something like this happens — look at automotive industry, financial industry — what they do is take control of dollars then they begin to disperse them along political agendas. And we’ve seen this happen before, and it looks like its the development here. BP has said, time and time again, that they will process all legitimate claims, we have no reason to believe they won’t. Why does the administration feel like it’s got to take control of all the money from BP?

TP: So Congressman, the Republican Study Committee last night said that the $20 billion dollar escrow fund is just another Chicago style politics kind of power grab. Do you agree with that, do you think that’s a fair characterization?

JORDAN: I’m, look, I’m always worried about this unprecedented involvement by the government in the private sector and look, BP obviously made some mistakes, but do we really believe the Federal government is going to do a better job?

TP: What do you think about Joe Barton in the hearing this morning, he said ‘I apologize’ to the BP executives for the escrow fund, saying again it’s a shakedown […] Do you have any kind of reaction to a member of Congress apologizing to BP executives?

NUNES: Look, every member of Congress represents seven, eight hundred thousand people and they can do what they want.

Watch it:

 

… [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Think Progress>

From a Democratic perspective, what could be better?  We knew that the GOP is BP’s pawn, because of all the times they have filibustered Democratic attempts to raise the liability cap.  However this behavior is suicidal.  On the other hand, if they do not support the giant corporations Teabaggers claim to hate, the Teabaggers will Teabugger them.

And finally here’s that special video of Hayward’s testimony. 😉  Enjoy!

Corporations are NOT People!  Money is NOT speech!