Posted on 06/17/2010 3:07:24 PM PDT by Gipper08
The three top members of the House GOP leadership called a top-ranking member's apology to BP "wrong."
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) condemned remarks Thursday by Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) in which he apologized to BP for the treatment the company has faced by the government.
"The oil spill in the Gulf is this nation’s largest natural disaster and stopping the leak and cleaning up the region is our top priority. Congressman Barton’s statements this morning were wrong," the three said in a joint statement. "BP itself has acknowledged that responsibility for the economic damages lies with them and has offered an initial pledge of $20 billion dollars for that purpose."
The top three members of the Republican leadership were forced to respond after Barton apologized to BP CEO Tony Hayward in a hearing for the government's pressure on the company to establish a $20 billion account in escrow to pay out damages related to 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.
He later backed off those remarks, apologizing before the committee and in a statement.
Democrats pounced throughout the day on Barton's statement, seeking to tie his remarks to the GOP as a whole. Vice President Joe Biden called the sentiment "incredibly insensitive," while White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs questioned Barton's fitness to serve in the top GOP position on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The leadership trio sought in their statement to redirect the debate away from their own party and back toward President Barack Obama's handling of the crisis, where they'd made some headway in recent weeks.
"The families and businesspeople in the Gulf region want leadership, accountability and action from BP and the administration," they said. "It is unacceptable that, 59 days after this crisis began, no solution is forthcoming. Simply put, the American people want all of our resources, time and focus to be directed toward stopping the spill and cleaning up the mess."
Cowards!
Both sides of the aisle are afraid to go up against the obama regime. They act like he’s a legitimate leader who cares about OUR country. The thugs rule and no one will stop them.
Tell these guys to sit down, shut up and let the women run the party.
Not even that. All they needed to do was release a statement that Representative Barton has a mandate to represent the views of his constituents, and if they felt his words were out of line they will reflect their thoughts at election time.
And leave it at that.
For everyone who wants to stand up and pretend the Republican party has learned its lesson, this is Exhibit A to prove that wrong.
The lack of spine of Republican leadership is truly nauseating.
Well, not to take anything away from Palin-Bachman-
Coulter et.al, but it’s not too hard to have more testicular fortitude than these eunuchs...
No, the Republicans don’t want to be seen as sympathetic to BP. Obama’s poll numbers may be low, but he is more popular than BP.
That would be great but there are no women to the right of Pence. Palin is a pork queen and bailout supporter who nominates Planned parenthood opperatives to the state supreme court and Bachman loves her ag subsidies. So we need to throw them all out and elect citizen legislators.
BTW, in case someone misreads what I said, the eunuchs I am referring to are our so-called male so-called “leaders” of the fGOP, esp Boehner, Cantor, and Pence.
So simple, but no. They have to feed the media beast that wants nothing more than to prop the rats up. Pathetic.
I heard the apology. Barton did not back off the remarks that this was a shakedown. He apologized for giving the impression that he did not want people to be compensated for their losses and that BP was not fully responsible.
This is precisely the kind of thing conservatives should be pointing out--not in spite of it being unpopular, but BECAUSE it is unpopular. Hold BP accountable, be open if they want to do more than law requires--but point out that government control and especially this administration`s control tightens when it uses an `obvious` villain like BP to vault over the laws that protect us all.
Leaders would step up and say `I know it feels good to point fingers and demand billions from eeeeevil corporations like in the movies, but this is wrong, and here`s why, based on conservative ideals.`
But Republicans aren`t interested in pushing a conservative agenda [obvious for a long time]. What they want is to re-brand the GOP as the old democrat party--they want gov`t. interference in our lives, just not as much as the dems.
Pence was the author of the phony touchback system as a way to give amnesty.
Ahh, ok, so they too think that BP got robbed in the White House, since certainly we're not holding companies responsible for natural disasters now...
Poorly chosen verbiage aside, would one of these 'distinguished gentlemen' bother to explain why the cleanup costs and claims aren't being paid out of the oil spill fund that everyone who drills in US territorial waters and on land pays into? Wasn't that the entire ideal behind this fund?
yep. If Romney had been elected in 2008 75% of the GOP would have voted for Universal healthcare nearly identical to “obamacare”. Their (establishment Republicans) goal is universal healthcare and always has been.
No, Barton was right and you three are stupid and wrong.
Thats fine, good for them. They should clean up their mess and pledging $20 billion is laudable.
Thats not the problem. The problem is that they are handing the money over to O and O gets to decide who gets the money. Thats what makes it a shakedown.
If O had demanded that BP set up a $20 billion dollar escrow account to pay damages, great. That isn't what he did. He demanded that they set up a $20 billion dollar account that he controls. Barton was right. The weak-kneed girls from the GOP were wrong.
And Pence, dude, you were edging your way toward inclusion in my short list and you've just edged your way right back off of it again. Spines seem to be in short supply at GOP. Can't seem to find more than half a dozen. Barton had one for about five minutes but he gave it back.
A natural disaster? I am not convinced it was not sabotage. It was such a gloriously timely event, right on the target for promoting a no drill agenda.
P.S. Go, Barton!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.