Some Republicans consider BP deal a U.S. "shakedown"

Reuters on Yahoo ^ | 6/17/10 | Steve Holland

[Vaduz]

Extortion is the only thing Obama&Co. are good at years of on the job training pays off.

[OldDeckHand]

"Republicans are most likely to win if they stand up for conservative principles, not kowtow to the left and act like Democrat light."

Yep, I hear Sean Hannity say the exact same thing everday on his radio show. How many elections has Sean Hannity won? Zero, zip, nada, none.

Republicans are most likely to win when they get more people to vote for them than vote for the other guy. That's called popularity. You make it that much more difficult to be popular when you defend HIGHLY UNPOPULAR groups, to include criminally negligent companies who are in the process of destroying the livelihoods of thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of middle-class Americans.

"Most people can walk and chew gum at the same time. "

No, most people can't - at least not the people who vote. If they could, they wouldn't have elected a man to the office who was to the left of Bernie Sanders and the most inexperienced President, perhaps ever.

If "people" were discerning and discriminating consumers of information, then infomercials wouldn't be as wildly successful as they are.

"I suspect Barton's principled stand will do little if any damage to the Republican efforts to retake the House."

I suspect you'd fit right at home in the marketing department of the GOP because it's exactly that kind of disordered thinking at hapless campaign strategy that has led to the GOP being the minority party.

[Parley Baer]

“Is that the same court system that allowed Exxon to stall paying damages for almost 20 years?”

I have assume you like the Chicago extortion method better?

[Sudetenland]

You must love John McCain. BTW it's worked really well for President John McCain.

Oh! That's right, he lost the election.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Not really, but then again I’m not someone whose livelihood is being effected today and who can’t afford to drag a major corporation into court through years of appeals.

[OldDeckHand]

'You must love John McCain. BTW it's worked really well for President John McCain."

I love John McCain? Why would I love John McCain? He ran a HORRIBLE and idiotic campaign, saying all kinds of stupid things and political idiotic things all along the way, just like Barton.

Politics is a game of chess. Republicans have been playing checkers the last four years, and Barton appears to be playing marbles.

Defending BP during this crisis, when they actually deserve everything that is coming their way, is political suicide and profoundly stupid.

[Sudetenland]

John McCAin was the consumate political windmill. He reached across the aisle so often, he had a permanent seat on the other side. He was so concerned with being politically correct and working together that he is the embodiment of what you are advocating.

[OldDeckHand]

"He was so concerned with being politically correct and working together that he is the embodiment of what you are advocating."

This has nothing to do with reaching across the ideals or political correctness or abandoning conservative ideals. It has to do with NOT being politically retarded.

BP is WILDLY unpopular, and with tremendous reason. Why anyone thinks it's a politically intelligent idea to defend a criminal enterprise - and that is EXACTLY how BP has been behaving - is a mystery, an absolute mystery.

[HelenaGrace]

Ummm...Barton just retracted the apology to BP. And apologized for apologizing.

[Pale]

I happen to know for a fact that (a) as recently as last week BP was considering bankruptcy as a tactical option to avoid the full brunt of clean-up/compensation costs, and (b) they are asking shrimp fishermen & the like along the gulf for their "complete and full gross income, even if it's different from what you report" under the guise of paying them fair compensation, then turning those same people in to the IRS for undeclared income, as a way of reducing their financial liability.

Last I checked, conservatism stood for personal responsibility. To this conservative, that includes corporate responsibility. Call it a shakedown or whatever you want, but if this $20B fund keeps BP from cutting and running on their obligation, I'm all for it.

[HelenaGrace]

http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/06/rep-joe-barton-retracts-apolog.html

[Solson]

...but it won't...and it can't...stop BP from declaring bankruptcy to deal with this. If BP files, the money is tied up regardless of the best intentions of Barack.

Legal precedence is a bitch...

[roses of sharon]

Nonsense...there is nothing American about this shakedown...more like 3rd world dictator actions.

(WSJ)A government-administered fund more or less guarantees a more politicized payment process. The escrow administrator will be chosen by the White House, and as such would be influenced by the Administration’s political goals. Those goals would include payments to those harmed by the Administration’s own six-month deep water drilling ban. That reckless policy will soon put thousands of Gulf Coast residents out of work, but the White House knows that BP isn’t liable under current law for those claims. The escrow account is an attempt to tap BP’s funds by other means to pay the costs of Mr. Obama’s own policy blunder.

[counterpunch]

I agree with you.
Republicans aren’t the “stupid party” for nothing.
Instead Barton should have asked Hayward why he waived BP’s Due Process rights, if there was any coercion or pressure put on them by the 0bama regime, and what they are doing to protect shareholders’ investments.

[dfwgator]

Not a shakedown, it is government extortion and Obama and his hoods should be in jail.

"You mention 'extortion' again, and I'll have your legs broken."

[OldDeckHand]

"Instead Barton should have asked Hayward why he waived BP’s Due Process rights, if there was any coercion or pressure put on them by the 0bama regime, and what they are doing to protect shareholders’ investments."

That would require that a politician actually ask probing and insightful questions in a Congressional hearing, rather than engaging in the Kubuki theater these hearings have become in the last 70 years.

Barton tried to be dramatic and failed miserably.

[Sudetenland]

Did I or Barton make excuses for BP? If so please provide an example. What Barton was talking about is the rule of law. Nowhere is the President given the right or power to extort money from a private corporation just as there is nowhere granted the power or right for the government to take control of GM and Chrysler.

As I previously stated it is possible to be critical of the President's actions and to take BP to task for their clear negligence. Also, there is no evidence that BP was shirking their responsibility. If you "know for a fact that BP has been contemplating bankruptcy to escape their obligations, please provide your bona fides. I'm sure that Henry Waxman would be interested in hearing about it.

BP has one of the worst if not the worst reputations in the industry for safety and for operational integrity. The decisions they made and the actions they took were clearly negligent (though I am doubtful whether they arise to the level of criminality).

They have repeatedly low-balled their estimates on the amount of oil being released and the amount of environmental damage that may occur and I have from day one been critical of them.

That being said, it does not lie in the purview of the federal government to extort money from a private corporation. We live under a Constitution and a set of laws which must be applied equally and without prejudice and that is patently not what the Obama Administration and the Democrats in Congress are interested in doing. They are primarily interested in how much political hay they can make out of this "opportunity."