You won’t believe this – Dems cash in on Republican BP apology
Congressional Democrats are quickly trying to cash in on Joe Barton, the Republican lawmaker with ties to the oil industry who apologized to BP on national TV.
Just hours after Barton’s remarks on Thursday, the House and Senate Democratic campaign committees issued fund-raising appeals featuring and ridiculing the white-haired Texan.
“You won’t believe this,” begins the letter from the House Democratic campaign committee. “Yes, Texas Congressman Joe Barton actually apologized to BP CEO Tony Hayward.”
The Senate Democratic campaign committee characterized Barton in its letter as a defender of “big polluters.”
Nathan Gonzales of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report said, “Joe Barton is not a high-profile guy. But Democrats aim to make him one.”
“BP is perhaps the most despised entity in the United States right now, and Democrats are going to do what they can to tie Barton and other Republicans to them,” Gonzales said.
“We will see how it resonates,” Gonzales said.
Washington politicians finally meet someone who can fast-talk them
Democrats in the House Energy and Commerce Committee had a secret weapon — a speed-reader — who they were prepared to pull out in case Republicans forced the public reading of a nearly 1,000-page climate change bill and lengthy amendments that have been debated all week.
The procedural maneuver to delay progress on the bill had been threatened by Republicans, who oppose the “cap and trade” program Democrats constructed to gradually reduce industry’s greenhouse gas emissions.
In the end, Republicans didn’t resort to the delay.
But not wanting to waste the talents of the speed-reader Chairman Henry Waxman hired, the committee gave Douglas Wilder his moment in the sun by asking him to read out loud hundreds of pages contained in a Republican counter-proposal that everyone knew was doomed.
Sporting an orange-colored shirt, patterned tie and brushed-back hair, Wilder took off, sounding almost like an auctioneer.
The words flew by, sometimes almost unintelligible and too fast for even the most competent note-takers in the hearing room filled with lawmakers, lobbyists and journalists.
“Section one…short title…energy production and conservation act…table of contents…federal…efficiency…”
When you win, always mock your opponent. It shows your true character. The Dems are playing a dangerous game of becoming the oppressor which they so fervently charge the Reps as being. Its like they were not paying attention to the actual reasons for their populist success. Remember, Bush and Co. are no longer in office, no matter how much every liberal still acts likes they are. The onus is now squarely fixed on the the Dems and Obama. If something goes wrong, their “kindness” will be reciprocated. The “I-want-it-now” culture that got Obama elected will be used against them.
Joe Barton (GOBP) has done a fair amount of apologizing lately. It started with a public apology to BP, which was soon followed by an apology for the apology. Then he began apologizing to Gulf Coast Republicans, and apologized to the rest of his party for all the trouble he caused.
And then he posts a link on his Twitter page to an American Spectator article titled, “Joe Barton was right.” The article by Peter Hannaford is a robust defense of what Barton said, knocking the Obama administration for “Alinsky” tactics and hatred of business.
When a lawmaker is sincerely sorry about an ostensible mistake, and believes he was wrong, he doesn’t turn around hours later to boast publicly that he was right. It’s the kind of move that suggests his apology was made for the sake of political expedience.
Barton’s office scrambled to remove the tweet but it has, of course, been captured with screen-grabs and posted all over the internet. The American Spectator piece has been scrubbed. Barton probably realizes he’s screwed up again.
Remember, this guy is the leading House Republican on matters related to energy and climate policy. Seriously. The American people now have an easy choice to make in November.