BP came to an agreement with the White House to provide 20 million dollars in escrow for the many forthcoming lawsuits it will face. The response from many Republicans, including Rush Limbaugh, ___ of Fox News, and now Texas Representative Joe Barton, was that this agreement amounts to nothing short of "Shakedown" by the White House, which used "Chicago-style tactics" to get BP to loosen their purse strings.
According to the Huffington Post, Republicans on the Hill have calculated that President Obama's successful demand that BP set up a $20 billion escrow account to pay out claims is ripe for political attack. In the wake of Wednesday's White House announcement, a host of GOP officials are raising questions about both the process by which the deal was made and the deal itself -- going so far as to apologize to BP on America's behalf.
Regrettably perhaps, Representative Barton told BP's CEO, Tony Hayward that he was "ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday," He also stated, " I think it is a tragedy in 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 -- with the attorney general of the United States, who is legitimately conducting a criminal investigation and has every right to do so to protect the American people, participating in what amounts to a $20 billion slush fund that's unprecedented in our nation's history, which has no legal standing, which I think sets a terrible precedent for our nation's future."
He noted that he was only speaking for himself, "but I apologize. I do not want to live in a county where anytime a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong, [it is] subject to some sort of political pressure that, again, in my words, amounts to a shakedown."
By Thursday afternoon, after immense pressure, Representative Barton retracted his statement. Perhaps in large part because his major campaign contributors are oil giants.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs during Thursday's daily briefing suggested strongly that Barton should no longer serve as the ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee after his apology to BP this morning,
Mr. Gibbs also stated, "What is shameful is that Joe Barton seems to have more concern for big corporations that caused this disaster than the fishermen, small business owners and communities whose lives have been devastated by the destruction," said Gibbs. "Congressman Barton may think that a fund to compensate these Americans is a 'tragedy', but most Americans know that the real tragedy is what the men and women of the Gulf Coast are going through right now. Members from both parties should repudiate his comments."
On Thursday morning, meanwhile, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) tried for the fourth time to eliminate the $75 million cap on liability for economic damages that oil companies must pay in the wake of a spill. His effort for a unanimous consent agreement was rejected, once more, by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), who said the policy would make drilling offshore economically prohibitive for smaller oil companies.
Barton's office sent out the following statement on Thursday afternoon retracting his apology to BP:
"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. As I told my colleagues yesterday and said again this morning, BP should bear the full financial responsibility for the accident on their lease in the Gulf of Mexico. BP should fully compensate those families and businesses that have been hurt by this accident. BP and the federal government need to stop the leak, clean up the damage, and take whatever steps necessary to prevent a similar accident in the future.
I regret the impact that my statement this morning implied that BP should not pay for the consequences of their decisions and actions in this incident."
How this pans out is simply unknown. But Representative Barton's compassion was only directed toward the pocketbook of BP, and not the 11 men tragically killed on board the TransOcean Rig, and far from those who are being financially crippled by the remnants left in the wake of this horrific oil spill.
