Stupid can only be reckless and recklessness is never virtuous.

Just as it is easier to die for a cause, than live for one, it’s much easier to speak to the truth than to actualize it.

We need those that can be wise and nimble on their feet as they navigate the treacherous path to power. If the goal is throw out the Democrats we can not afford to fall with fools like Barton.

Thank you for this.

Obama was literally drowning in the Gulf and this guy not only throws him a rope, but give the Dems talking points to bash the GOP over the head with. Apologizing to the company that has destroyed the Gulf was just a foolish thing to do. Winning control of the House is not in the bag. The Dems aren’t going down without a fight and more idiotic gaffes like this one will result in Queen Nancy staying right where she is.

And I do mean respect.

I’m about 75% with you on this but I still see an issue here.

Where do we draw the line in the sand? When do we all gang up together to show the American people companies can’t be demonized. BP is not being demonized because of the spill, that’s just how it was sold to the citizens of America. I understand BP failed but in the end Obama and his buddies are looking much further in the future than what just happened,

Maybe we need to take a stand and get rid of the “art of politics”. If one leader takes a stand and we all follow maybe that’s a better solution than waiting for November……..November may never happen, and we could end up with a bunch of weak Republicans that do nothing for our cause.

One thing I know for sure, the Obama administration failed to do it’s job but the American people do see it that way. I call it weak leadership, what’s right is right.

Handprop

I think the $20 billion escrow account, slushfund, extortion, or good faith payment — whatever you want to call it — is a boon for those Americans hurt by BP.

It’s managed by a third-party with an excellent track record.

It eliminates the need for lawyers (tort that, you greedy contingency fee-based legal bastards),

It’s also a wonderful cushion for the inevitable legal stonewalling in lawsuits involving American courts, a British corporation, a Korean-built oil rig registered and flagged in the Marshall Islands, financially iffy insurance companies and guarantors, and a handful of other corporations registered in the hilariously overregulated Cayman Islands.

In this particular instance, I’m more pragmatic than ideological. In today’s horrendous economic downturn, if a corporation with a less than stellar safety record offers Americans $20 billion in partial reparations for damages, I say Take the money and run.

After all, we spent all that taxpayer money on Iraq and got nothing out of it. We’re spending all that taxpayer money on Afghanistan, and we’re getting nothing out of it. (For some reason, China keeps beating us out of all the oil and mineral rights deals.) We keep sending aid (taxpayer money) out to earthquake- and tsunami-ravaged countries. I’d like to point out to Rep. Bachmann that that all counts as redistribution of wealth too, you know.

It’s a nice change having someone giving us money for once, isn’t it.

I previously stated that the $20B fund to facilitate efficient/timely compensation to victims was the ONLY way in which the Obama administration had shown any leadership in any way on the oil disaster. As it turn out, it wasn’t the idea of the WH.

Apparently, the idea was originally proposed by Republicans. Most specifically, LeMieux or Cao. As it turns out, it does look like BP volunteered to go along for a variety of reasons, the primary reason being PR but also to reduce the administrative costs.

http://vodpod.com/watch/3651554-lemieux-bp-to-decide-on-1-billion-oil-spill-fund-within-a-week

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/right-now/2010/06/do_republicans_deserve_credit.html

http://saintpetersblog.com/2010/06/13/lemieux-getting-credit-for-obama-administrations-idea-for-bp-escrow-fund/

Let me see if I have this correct.
Barack Obama dithers on parties and golf while an ever growing blob of black crude spread across the Gulf while he appears to be feckless and incompetent.
He is paralyzed.
Joe Barton says something dumb bluh blah blah.

Republicans are in trouble now…..?

Uh hoh please.
Obama owns this oil spill lock stock and 55 gallon barrel and there is no way he is off the hook just because Rep. Barton shot his mouth off and I don’t care what the leftie rumpswabs say.

A week from now the oil will still be flowing and Joe Barton’s comment won’t even make a Trivial Pursuit question ten years from now.
No one in Lousiana gives a damn about some Rep. they never even heard of before when they are watching their livelihood destroyed.
If the DNC and their leftie bum kissers want to try and make an issue of Barton’s comment with the voters while that oil still flows then they do so at their own peril.

Let them try.

Let them try to divert attention from the real issue with some sort of political card trick.
It will have the same effect as calling Tea Partiers racists gun totin’ hillbillies.
They will come across like major league a-holes.
The pundits can gasp in outrage all they want but they are talking to themselves.
This story has the shelf life of an unrefrigerated egg.

Barton’s timing was terrible and his judgement atrocious.

Right now, people are actually starting to think of a Congress with Republicans in charge, in the oh-so-hopefully-near future. The House GOP needs to show it can govern smart.

We don’t need unforced errors. If Barton doesn’t get that, then he needs to stay as a backbencher.

Retread, disregard. – NS

Let’s soundly dispense with the foolish part of this article right up front: There is never a wrong time to be right or to advocate for what is right. The idea that we ought not stand up and promote a position that is true and just because of political expediency is ridiculous. There are all kind of “right” positions that were/are not popular but for which it was/is vital that elected officials and citizens don’t cower from in fear, but instead stand confident and work to persuade: doing away with public schools and Federal involvement in education, spinning down entitlement programs like Social Security, opposing massive government spending on climate change “solutions”, and so on.

If you’re a lawyer with any spine and a sense of justice you don’t shy away from defending a client because they’re unpopular. Likewise if you’re an elected official with any sense of stewardship and duty you don’t keep your mouth shut when you see a wrong taking place because it may hurt some of your buddy candidates, or even yourself.

Sadly, it appears Barton himself wont even stand behind his own words, so given his recantation we assume that he, at least, does not believe he was right: “I apologize for using the term ‘shakedown’ with regard to yesterday’s actions at the White House in my opening statement this morning, and I retract my apology to BP.”

So we know where he stands, but what about us, on the only questions that should be up for debate: Was Barton right to claim that what the government is doing amounts to a shakedown (Barton: ““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 … that’s unprecedented in our nation’s history, that’s got no legal standing, and which sets, I think, a terrible precedent for the future“)? Was it right for Barton to apologize to BP (Barton: “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.“?

On point one, I say Barton was damn right. Where is due process here? What back room arm bending was used to coerce 20B from BP, preempting the judicial process by which citizens would normally go about making claims for restitution from an entity or entities that have damaged property or otherwise caused harm?

You have what happens in a court of law with a defendant, a plaintiff, and existing legislation aimed at upholding justice… and you have what happens in a D.C. office with the government, a business owner, and, presumably, threats of regulation and legislation aimed at vindication (or, more likely, simple political gain). One of these scenarios is a shakedown. Barton knows the difference – or at least he did before his remarkable retreat.

If you can’t rely on your elected officials to spine up when needed, then it is left to us to stand up for the right and against the wrong. The way the government is handling this is wrong. American citizens can differentiate between what should justly happen to BP in terms of due process and restitution versus what is unjustly happening to them now – and a real leader could be pointing out that difference to the benefit of conservatism instead of turning tail for political expediency.

On point two, was an apology from the government in order? Again I say, damn right it is. The government was/is engaged in carrying out a wrong against BP. More specifically, we ought to expect an apology from the individuals in the government who set out to conduct the shakedown. An apology and a resignation.

Practically speaking government meddling in large, successful companies is nothing new and any entity the size of BP wont be surprised by this situation. That such government meddling is typical does not make it right. That the public blames BP for the situation does not mean we should shut up about an injustice the government is currently committing against BP.

This page has climbed all over GOP House leadership for taking the “politically savy” road instead of standing up and hollering that something dumb that the Dems did was really — you know — DUMB? How often have we heard them say that they know best, the public is too stupid to understand, and it will all work out if we just quiet down and don’t raise a stink. We might make BO mad at us or something. How often has it NOT WORKED OUT?

Maybe this time it will work out. Maybe NRCC leadership really is right this time. Even a stopped clock is … We shall see.

Meanwhile, we shall all remain quiet and docile about this astonishing and egregious unlawful accretion of power by the Executive. I don’t know whether I will be more upset if this turns out to be just another of Rhambo’s slush funds administered by a political hack from the White House, or if it really is a truly “independent” entity, answerable to no one, able to pass out OPM for a decade or more at its own whim.

People can see it, touch it, and smell it. If we lead we can win this, we have the right position and it’s worth, not just fighting, but fighting hard.

Handprop

….always have to apologize and/or step down for telling the truth?
and 2. What can the Republican leadership, Rush Limbaugh, Erick Erickson and everybody who is saying “We have to win the election”, promise us is going to happen AFTER we win the election? Why, after republicans have won several elections since 1968, do we still have a Department of Education? Just to name one. Why are illegal aliens still overrunning the country and its resources, to name another. How much do you want me to go one here? Somebody? Anybody?
There are 9th and 10th and 1st Amendments and the Declaration of Independence and many other things that say people named Joe don’t have to apologize for speaking the truth. Where are we in the course of human events?

…the American people, and not to BP. We are the ones that deserve an apology for the shakedown that is undermining the rule of law on which our country was founded.

Lots of folks on both sides of this, who feel pretty strongly about it.

Fun fun fun till her daddy takes the TBird away!!!!!

In the same conversation with the quote above, Rush said that’s all that motivates GOP leadership, is to be liked by the media and popular on the Beltway social circuit. It doesn’t matter if it’s BP or anything else. What Barton said is minor or could have been made so. The fact is the so-called leaders behind him are pathetically weak, are dominated by fear of the media, and everyone seems to know it but them. I want Barton to fight, at this point he has nothing to lose.

Few are successfully manipulated to embarrass, weaken, and humiliate half the country (my half) in a desperate time. Major media already does this around the clock 52 weeks a year. Whether it was inaccurate is not the point. It could have been dealt with differently.

Barton was correct in his apology, though politically damaging for himself. It’s disgusting that our so-called Commander-in-Chief dictates this, that, and the other thing to both domestic and foreign corporations. He plays on the fears of those who have no knowledge in order to bolster his poll numbers and cares not for the consequences of his knee-jerk reactions. If there’s no crisis he’ll glady create one in order to stomp on someone or some group in the name of populism to show he’s “doing” something. Of course, “doing something” for TOTUS means more unemployment for those servicing the offshore drilling platforms, along with the folks on those platforms. Will the ire of the public ratchet up when gas gets to $7 a gallon? You betcha (as that famous Vice Presidential nominee has said, over and over). One might well wonder what TOTUS will do then to “fix” yet another problem….

A good thing . .

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/yahoolatestnews/stories/062410dnnatbartonstays.cf86c130.html