Posted on 06/17/2010 11:14:06 AM PDT by DukeBillie
A Republican lawmaker from a district affected by the oil spill called on Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) to step down as the ranking member of his committee.
Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), whose Pensacola district is among the most-impacted areas in the Gulf by the oil spill, condemned Barton for apologizing to BP CEO Tony Hayward during a committee meeting on Thursday.
"I condemn Mr. Barton’s statement. Mr. Barton’s remarks are out of touch with this tragedy and I feel his comments call into question his judgment and ability to serve in a leadership on the Energy and Commerce Committee," MIller said in a statement. "He should step down as ranking member of the Committee.”
Barton apologized to Hayward during opening remarks at a hearing this morning, telling Hayward that he was "ashamed" by President Barack Obama's effort to force BP to create a $20 billion fund in escrow to pay out damages to victims of the oil spill.
“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 dollar shakedown,” Barton said.
Miller took Barton to task.
“I am shocked by Congressman Joe Barton’s reprehensible comments that the government should apologize for the ‘shakedown’ of BP," he said. "BP has caused the greatest ecological and environmental disaster our nation has ever seen. They are the responsible party and they should pay for losses and damages, not the taxpayer. I am optimistic and hopeful that BP acted in good faith by opening the $20 million escrow account, as several of us have requested."
Republicans have already begun to distance themselves from Barton's remarks.
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he disagreed with Barton during his weekly press conference.
"I have said since the beginning that BP ought to be held responsible for every dime of this tragedy," Boehner said. "And they ought to be held accountable to stop the leak and get it cleaned up as soon as possible.”
Another one of Barton's colleagues, Rep. Michael Burgess (R), who was a top member of the subcommittee hosting Hayward today, also disavowed Barton's remarks.
"He made it quite clear he was speaking only for himself," he said.
anyone have contact info for these chump rinos handym??
It looks a lot like the back of a Canadian $50 dollar bill.
Barton’s comments were right on the money. How do I know this? Because a Congressman just asked Hayword if he thought what happened at the White House was a shake down. Hayword would not say, “No.” The Congressman wasn’t happy with the answer so he explained what a shake down is to Hayword and then again asked him if that’s what happened. Again Hayword never uttered the word, “No.” He said BP and the WH “came together.”
So that means, “Yes. It was a shake down.”
Jeffry needs to pull up his big boy panties and save his tantrums for the real posers in this administration.
No Jeffry, it’s not OK for Barry Soetero to go all Hugo Chavez on BP when you all in the Gulf desperately need BP to stay viable and find a solution to this disaster.
Barry is never gonna plug your leak, fellas. Some demon private business is gonna plug the leak.
Just where does the rule of law apply to what Obamah is doing Jeffery?
You got that exactly right.
Since when is “holding BP responsible” and strong-arming it for money the same thing?
The weak sisters in the GOP need to understand that if the Dhimmi scum will extort BP they’ll do it to anybody.
Instead of agreeing with the Dhimmis they should be beating their drums wanting to know what safeguards the regime is going to provide to ensure that the money is not going to be simply another slush fund used to bail out 0’s allies as the porkulus bill was.
BP doesn't deserve any apology for what they did, but for the actions of Obama's Chicago Way. Just look at what happened to GMs senior creditors where the Administration effectively stole their money and gave it to his union supporters as payment.
Obamah would like nothing more than to bankrupt BP, causing the loss of hundredes of thousand of jobs here in the US and in the UK, directly and indirectly from service and equipment providers.
You have conclusively proven that there are plenty of fools around but Joe Barton isn't one of them!
Well said! Spot on target!
“BP doesn’t deserve any apology for what they did, but for the actions of Obama’s Chicago Way. Just look at what happened to GMs senior creditors where the Administration effectively stole their money and gave it to his union supporters as payment.”
And that is EXACTLY what Rep. Barton did! He apologized for our President using thug tactics to “shakedown” a company! He did not apologize for anything else!
Barton was 100% correct in EVERYTHING he said during that opening statement! Go Joe!
Burgess said that any one on the Congressional committee could do Tony Hayward’s job. Does that include Henry Waxman? These get-along gang Republicans need to knock it off and see the big picture. Instead, they all cower to the media and accept the premises set by the Democrat on who are the good guys and who are the bad guys
Guess which one has his hand out??
Pray for America
Burgess is my Representative. I just called his office and ripped his staff a new one over that comment. Hayword got his PhD in Geology at the age of 22. Representative Burgess is a medical doctor not a geologist.
Barton is not suggesting that they should not be held accountable. He is pointing out, that we do not have a system of government under our constitution where a dictator excecutive can dictate the terms and amount and the method by which they will be held accountable and circumvent the legal process that is in place for such accountability.
You prefer the Hugo Chavez approach that Zerobama is taking? How about just having the government seize control of BP altogethter to make sure they are properly held accountable? Is that what you are suggesting?
Yeah, forget about the legal system. It’s much more efficient when the President makes these types of decisions for everybody.
And it’s much more equitable, too. Who wants this damages mess overseen by some judge, when we can appoint an independent third-party individual who was personally hand-picked by Obama?
This crop of politicians are total blowhards.
Boehner, Cantor and Pence issued a statement saying Barton is wrong. I guess they are all RINO’s?
Let’s see how many in Congress defend his remarks.
Never under estimate the stupidity of a RINO congress critter.
If obama can shake down BP, and decide he wants x amount of dollars, put in this account, to be distributed by his lackey all without any legal grounds, who’s next? If your company crosses the gov. or doesn’t and they want part of your $$$ what’s to stop them from concocting some BS and threatening to take it to the whores in the press and turn the so-called Justice Dept. loose on you?
BP should have told obama to take two running leaps straight into hell, there is a legal system in place to handle this properly.
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