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Wow, that was fast, wasn’t it? In about four hours flat, Congressman Joe Barton went from saying he was ashamed of the “shakedown” that BP faced at the White House to saying he was sorry he had said he was sorry to the CEO of BP. Seldom has any official in Washington, DC, been taken to the woodshed so fast and so completely.
Barton, a Republican who represents a growing suburban enclave between Dallas and Ft. Worth, first said he wanted to apologize to the BP CEO. He said making a “private corporation” pledge to put up 20 billion for oil spill relief was nothing but a shakedown.
The web immediately lit up with condemning rants, the Democrats smelled blood (instead of oil) in the water, Joe Biden showed up at the White House press briefing to condemn Barton but the coup de grace was delivered by Barton’s own Republican party. He was summoned to a meeting at the office of Minority Leader John Boehner with Congressmen Eric Cantor (Virginia) and Mike Pence (Indiana) in attendance. Barton was given a simple option: issue a statement saying he was wrong in what he first said or lose his position on the House Energy committee. You could say he immediately saw the wisdom of what was being said and he caved. Boehner’s office took some of the work out of it by issuing statement of Barton’s apology for his earlier apology. Case closed?
The Republicans have been riding high in recent months, the taste and smell of possible victories in the off year elections this November dancing in their heads. With friends like Barton, they don’t need enemies. Needless to say, the people of the Gulf Coast don’t consider the potential 20 billion payout by BP a shakedown. They consider it justice, maybe rough justice, but still important and fair. They are watching their way of life, and their earnings, disappear with every big wave of oil hitting the beaches and they want to be compensated, pronto.
Because of the prevailing currents in the Gulf of Mexico, the coast of Texas has escaped damage from the massive oil spill that is now close to 60 days old and running. It seems likely that most of the oil will stay, and move, eastward from Louisiana. Thus, Texans get to be all principled, if you can call it that, about this mess. They get to keep talking about the importance of free enterprise while their neighbors to the east choke on sludge like oil and their wildlife, including that harvested by commercial fishing, goes south by the minute.
The old saying is that where people stand in politics depends on whose ox is being gored. If it doesn’t directly affect me, well then I am going to talk about what’s more important than your job. If I lose my job, well, different story. Then, forget ideology and fight it anyway you can.
Barton seems, by all indications, to represent the views in Texas which hold the modern world itself at fault for every problem. Inside their state, a good many Texas Republicans sell the idea that just about everything the government does is bad and virtually nothing big business does is harmful, especially the oil companies. Barton and his like minded Republicans want their constituents to believe that every spec of prosperity and every job is somehow a blessing granted by capitalism while everything bad comes from Washington. All will be fine if we just leave business alone.
Barton got caught in a whipsaw because he, like many other Texas Republicans and others from around the south, is out of touch with the rest of the country. In his district in Texas, that’s considered an advantage. He and many other right and far right Republicans live in an echo chamber where their views are broadcast back to them, quite literally, by friendly, even fawning media at home and Fox News nationally. They are seldom even questioned in their views, much less put on the spot. Could it be that Barton, like generations from oil states before him, is also blinded by his campaign contributions from big oil?
Barton got a hard, fast object lesson Thursday, 6.16.10., about what happens when someone so out of touch with reality is, even for a brief moment, seen as a spokesperson for the Republican party. Ouch. Even if he were right on this issue, that BP should not have been “forced” to promise 20 billion, the Republican leadership would not want to be broadcasting their opposition to helping people. As such, they look not just like the party of no, but like the party that opposes anything and everything that might help the little guy or, more correctly, the small people.
BP made its pledge of 20 billion, by the way, because they believe it is in their interest to do so and because they can afford it. Perhaps not easily, but they can afford it. They were preparing to payout 10 billion in dividends to their stock holders this year. Do you want another Wall Street blow up on your hands, where the rich get richer while the poor get tramped on? Probably not.
BP made the decision, in part, to get some good PR, to look a little better in the public eye for at least a day and let the rest of the chips fall where they may. What other choice did they have, with or without White House pressure? They had already pledged to pay “legitimate claims”. By promising a fund of 20 billion, they put a figure on the start of the process and, perhaps most importantly, they agreed that they, as the cause of the problem, will not be involved moment by moment in saying who gets what. Had they insisted on staying as the arbiter of payments, every action would be judged as representing their self interest over the dire need for assistance. For people who live on the Gulf Coast, that is probably the single most important part of the process now being created.
Doug Terry
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