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Subscribe to RSSRep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, has issued a written statement in response to the controversy over his remarks during BP CEO Tony Hayward's testimony this morning. The written statement goes much further than the apology he made in the hearing the afternoon, when he said he was sorry if anyone "misconstrued" him:
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.
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So, the Gulf residents-all of them- so adversely affected by this tragic disaster should wait for the $75MM liability cap in place to be litigated & then doled out ? We've learned nothing since the Exxon Valdez ? We- and Gulf residents should wait for what ? A Republican Congress or Repub President to make a better deal ? Or just wait on the "rule of law" -whatever that means-- seemingly so favored by Repubs, the biggest takers of oil contributions? God help us.
So, the Gulf residents-all of them- so adversely affected by this tragic disaster should wait for the $75MM liability cap in place to be litigated & then doled out ? We've learned nothing since the Exxon Valdez ? We- and Gulf residents should wait for what ? A Republican Congress or Repub President to make a better deal ? Or just wait on the "rule of law" -whatever that means-- seemingly so favored by Repubs, the biggest takers of oil contributions? God help us.
This doesn't clarify anything about why he apologized to BP. It's a complete reversal of his earlier statement. This just proves that in addition to being a corporate puppet, he's also a complete coward. Stand by your convictions!
Definitely a corporate stooge. Only one other member of congress has gotten more money from oil companies.
actually, his latest apology explains a lot . It prooves to the world that the man has no sense of loyalty to his country, only to the idiots dumb enough to buy his line of bullsh*t and reelect him. He is just a gutless professionalm politician, and i mean that in the worst sense of the word
ishmaeldaro, did you not read where Joey was "called" to the White House and ordered by our ridiculous excuse for a president to apologize for his apology or be removed from the Inquiry commision. If removed, he'd be of NO value to make expert decisions, that he nor anybody else on the commision knows anything about. There are No experts on that commision, they weren't invited. If so, they would make our government look as bad as the CEO of BP, they know nothing about drilling oil wells, safety controls or stopping the "gusher", or running a company or country. Oh. I'm sorry, they don't want to use the word gusher, that implies "out of control". At least three contries volunteered to come in and help, with there equipment and expertise to help control and contain, but due to our all knowing president and his cabinet of puppets, who had it ALL under control on the second day, not only have we lost the LA coast, but now we're gonna loose MS, GA, and FL and lord knows what else. I wasn't able to hear the whole inquiry, but not once were any of the main causes of the explosion even really mentioned. All I kept hearing was "I can't comment on that". The concrete was mentioned briefly, but that wasn't the cause. The mud pump that was shut off, the relay cable to the BOP that was severed, the 15 tons of pipe that was dropped on the BOP and crushed the rubber gaskets that were shown to the rig foreman and who on his own authority, he called nobody else for advise, he kept the rig running WITHOUT a working BOP that could stop a gusher from erupting and also causing a gas explosion that ignited the rigs gas tanks. It's all been layed out by several witnesses who did manage to escape, but BP wants their own EXPERTS to tell us, what BP wants us to hear, unstead of the truth about greed and inept ability to run a complex oil rig, safely. and under budget which they were already well over 25M, due to this being the second failed hole they had drilled. Now they want to drill two more holes, that have a very slim chance of stopping anything, let alone oil. OH, Forget it, once again, the people loose and government and corporations will win, in the long run.
Actually, it was the RepubliCON leadership who orederedhim too apologize or else.
How about a simple, "Oops, I totally blew that one, didn't I?" Did you mistake a Democratic President for a Republican Congressional leader, did you not believe that a Republican would ever do something like that, or do you just automatically blame everything on the President and, if so, why?
@HelloKittycat
#1 You can not be that stupid, Pres Obama didn't call the guy into the White House and demand an apology, the REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP did that. Either learn to read or stop just posting lies.
#2 It was Pres Bush who allowed BP to do deep sea drilling without proper safety inspections by federal regulators and who laid off most of the inspectors and gutted a lot of the rule governing oil rigs and drilling.
#3 It was VP Cheney who was in charge of writing the Energy Policy for the Bush Administration, the same Cheney who received a 24 to 34 million dollar check from big energy corporations before taking office. It was Cheney who invited big energy corporation to write the US energy policy, which gutted regulations and dropped the need for federal oversight and inspections.
Learning how to read it a beautiful thing
Rep Barton was not called to the Whitehouse!! His own leadership, John Boehner and others warned him that he must retract his apology or lose his leadership seat on the committee. From your comments, you sound like a Glen Beck fan! Learn to read... You don't always have to formulate your opinions from pundits.
LOL!!! Now you "waaant "the BIG GOVERNMENT to step in and save your red state asses.SECEDE from the UNION already! DRILL BABY DRILL! Be careful of what you wish for or you may just damn get it, hypocrites!
Hey, the people wanted CHANGE, boy did they get it. A expert president and OIL.
Exactly what does this comment have to do with this story?
It doesn't have anything to do with the story. He's just another birther.
It was the Bush administration that permitted BP to drill deep water wells as recommended to the dumber president by Cheney. You need to get your facts straight. You, as Mr. Hayward was described by the committee, are insulting our intelligence. Crawl back under your rock!
If this azzwipe gets re-elected, the people who vote for him should be deported, then SHOT!!! ANYONE standing up for this BS BUROCRAT, is nothing more than a SHILL!!!
Wow robbieg, how increadiblly American of you. You make us all proud!
Robbieg696....Shame on you..Maybe you should join Mr Barton and take your act across the pond. Remember we have open borders here and you may leave at anytime.
Hellokittycat,
The Republicans forced him to apologize, not the White House. "You are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts"
Do not forget that Barton is a Texas politician. Oil is big in Texas. So his west Texas constituency is probably pro oil companies, because they all work for them.
Unfortunately I am one of Mr. Barton's constituents and I TOTALLY HATE THE GUY AND WHAT HE STANDS FOR (namely Big Oil Rules!) I called his office yesterday to lodge a complaint at his BP apology and I was lectured by his "aides" (who sound like they just graduated high school). This guy is and always has been a big joke.....hope this finally ruins his political career. It just amazes me that his lack of brainpower and common sense has not ruined his political career already, however, I must remember this is Texas, home of GDub (I rest my case!)
He has also received more contributions from big oil than any other member of congress.
El Presidente, though I'm not -- thank every god there is -- one of Barton's constituents, I am Texan and would like to make a small correction. You mentioned his "west Texas constituents," which puzzled me, since as my memory served, I thought his district was in *east* Texas.* So I went to his official website since most representatives' sites have maps of their districts and checked, and sure enough, his district is in east Texas. It runs southeast from the southern reaches of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex most of the district's length, though at the southern end it bends -- about due east. It's true that Fort Worth bills itself as "Where the West Begins" (and with many very solid reasons for doing so, despite its position in the *eastern* half of the state), but by not even the most poetic stretch of the imagine can Barton-the-Big-Mouth's district be said to be in west Texas. I would be surprised if some real, actual, genuine West Texans weren't offended by the error. Maybe some like him, and you've belittled his supporter. Maybe some dislike him, and you've put him in their part of the state.
openyourmind,
Silly you, didn't you know? That's how the Repugnuts get all their "facts." Some tea bagger makes an asinine claim, Palin tweets the same BS, and then FauxNews reports it as the gospel. At least the Bushies would first leak their lies to the legitimate press and then cite their reports. Of course, those sources would later print a corrected version once they check the facts, but those were simply ignored.
Excuse me, but Obama took more in campaign contributions from BP than any other president, Dem or Repub.
That's true, as a great many people have pointed out. You make no comment beyond the statement of the plain fact, so I don't know if you yourself attach any significance to it. If not, then what I'm about to say doesn't apply to you.
Most of the comments I've read that mention the fact that President Obama received more campaign funds from BP than any other candidate last election cycle ALSO (1.) condemn him for it, or, (2.) excuse people like Barton for receiving funds from the company, pointing the Obama's receiving a lot of money from BP, or, (3.) both.
There's a difference. Barton publicly apologized, on TV, to BP. President Obama came down on BP -- hard -- despite being the recipient of considerable largesse from the company himself. It is completely beside the point whether one loves/hates/doesn't care about either Representative Barton or President Obama. The factual record is there, whatever each of us makes of it.
Note that I have not expressed a view one way or the other in this comment. My purpose is not to air my own view but merely to point to the factual record, as diane-624885 does in her comment.
It never fail to amazes me that people would blame this on Obama. Seriously? Most of the people that blames him are white people living in the mid-southern. I see Obama is doing all he possibly can to get the spill contain and making BP pay for their shortcut/mistakes that claim 11 lives and the lively hood of the "small people" along the coast.
It's more to say then what G.W. even tried during Katrina. What it took him a week or so to send aid in while people had no food or water during that time period. Obama may taken lots of money from the oil company, but he's not prejudice in his action against them. Unlike the Republicans and this animosity towards a black president. I find it odd that when G.W. did all he can to destroy the U.S.A. everyone in the GOP thought it was a great idea going into two wars. Seriously? Good thing Obama won the election otherwise we would lose generations to the war in the middle east.
I am in agreement with you except that President Obama received one million from BP... Mr. G.W. Bush received over three million.
It strikes me as strange that we cannot look at President Obama as a person of mixed race. What makes a person just "black" if they come from mixed parentage?
Are you sure that President Obama received $1 million? What I've read has been in the $200,000 range -- the number $210,000 is floating around in the back of my mind, but I haven't fact-checked it. As for President Bush receiving $3 million (which number I'll accept on faith, not having fact-checked it, either), well, where's the surprise there? After all, he was an oilman prior to becoming President, and was very favorable to the oil and gas industry both during his tenure as Governor of Texas and after he ascended to the Presidency. Therefore, it makes sense that any company in that industry would likely be very supportive of him.
I will say I was startled to learn not only how much President Obama received as Candidate Obama, but even further by the reports that he outpaced everyone else in this regard. I've thought about it quite a bit, and guess BP concluded he would win first the nomination then the election, so made the investment to try to have a toe in the door to the Oval Office if their bet paid off. Well, maybe it did during the first 15 months of President Obama's term -- I simply don't know -- but it sure as heck hasn't since the Deepwater Horizon went up in smoke and then down the tube to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.
What a stooge.
Rep. Joe Barton may have apologized but I will always remember that his first words were spoken from the heart when he apologized to BP. Now his second apology is read off a sheet of paper. The damage is done. He can't escape this one. Lie all you want but we will always know your truthful feelings. We will also know how little our country means to you. You chose not to defend it. You chose to support BP the company that knowingly and willingly chose money over safety and left our ocean and coastline in ruins. I am ashamed that a man like Rep. Joe Barton represents our country and government at a time that we need to pull together to save our beautiful marshes and land.
Very well said "Sweet" Mary.And "YOU" did quite well to Tony. The Republicans "PREY" on Southern and rural White Ignorance and naivety from these people who FAIL--and REFUSE to EDUCATE--and INFORM themselves on their OWN Country and it's systems.Take care BOTH of you. Be blessed.
This apology is meaningless! Mr. Barton said what he said because he meant what he said! All of his apologies have the value of a three dollar bill!
If BP had not wanted to commit to any kind of escrow account for the victims of this oil spill, they could have declined the offer/demand. All BP had to do was to get up from the table and walk away! BP has its reason(s) for willingly accepting the proposal of setting up an escrow account for the victims of this tragedy.
It appears to me that Mr. Barton and those who support his apology to BP have little empathy or concern for the people and businesses in the Gulf Coast who are affected or might be affected by this spill. It seems to me that they feel that these folks should go through the same trials as those affected by the Valdez oil spill. Why can't they wait and fight for decades to be compensated for their loss? So what if they go broke in the meantime? Let the people clean up the mess and be satisfied with the 75mm!
Joe Barton didn't say anything that hasn'tbeen said behind closed doors, by other GOBP's. He should be sent packing. Not only out of DC, but all the way to Merry Ole' England. He can go to work for BP and earn a better living.The President can not put on a wet suit and stop this leak himself. This mess was not his doing and one must give him credit for doing something to make these people whole. The only thing we hear from the GOBP is sniping! Instead, why don't you all put your heads together and come up with a solution to this disastrous mess? After all, you have Barton, Bush, Cheny, Palin and McCain. Remember this is not a spill!! It's a huge leak that no one has been able to stop. "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem!"
Joe has shown where his loyalties lie. Just more proof that the republican party is of, by and for the corporation. If you would like to send joe an e-mail, here is his web page and travel and british naturalisation application to send to him. Joe does'nt want to live here any more so thought we could direct him to a more kinder gentler nation. have a nice trip Joe!
http://www.joebarton.house.gov/ContactJoe.aspx?Type=Email
http://www.britishairways.com/travel/london/public/en_us
http://www.britishairways.com/travel/london/public/en_us
forgot the british citizen app. here it is. send it to Joe.
http://www.bia.homeoffice.gov.uk/britishcitizenship/applying/applicationtypes/naturalisation/
All I have to say is that Hellokittycat ust be the most stupid person on the face of the earth. Obviously a recent graduate of the Glenn Beck School of Deep Thinking.
Joe Barton. I don't understand what the big deal is. He is just another brilliant RightWingRepublican. I know all the Texas shrimpers don't see any problems with the oil spill. Be interesting to see what will happen after a hurricane stirs the pot. I sure hope those good folk in Arlington are happy with their good ol' boy Rep Rep..
Another NO HEAD WING NUT!
The NO Heads Wing nuts have spoken!
I agree with Barton. Union Carbide wasn't treated this way by India after the Bhopal incident. Remember that? Over 5000 killed? Obama is a thug and is ignoring our consitiution, laws and the general public's wishes. Somebody needs to stand up to the bullies and thugs running this country. No wonder the Muslim extremists hate us. Does anybody remember the "jackbooted thugs" comment about Bush? Better practice up your best "Heil Hitler" salute. They will go after whatever they want and it may be something you cherish! Right now it's easy. Oil, the rich, big business, but when they run out of targets, look out YOU will be next. If you earn money at all, they want to "redistribute" it to some deadbeat sitting on his butt waiting for handouts. Something to ask yourselves, friends and anyone who will listen.... "did you ever get a job from a POOR man? Heil Obama? (I bet he would love that)
I see... you agree that the Indian government felt that Union Carbide was a good deal for them so what was the problem with a few thousand deaths? Oh BTW a little homework might help you begin to sound like you know what you are talking about. The immediate death toll was 2259 but there are many other later deaths related to the gas and the clean up hasn't yet been completed. BTW, what part of the constitution prohibits the government from negotiating such a deal? As was said later down this thread it was politically smart for BP to agree to establishment of such an escrow. We KNOW BP was not doing a good job getting the money to the victims. BTW, DOW still hasn't cleaned up the mess and it dragged out court proceedings regarding restitution to the injured and families of the dead until as late as this year! (How many died before they got justice???) In general it appears that you believe that the big corporations will take care of you. Union Carbide/DOW just loved cheap labor that can't complain when they were dead. BP would have gladly been fair and equitable in making the injured whole. Now click your heels 3 times and repeat...I LOVE BP.
by BP's own estimates, they expect to be spending in excess of 79 billion on clean up and restitution. its not hard to imagine that the white house didnt have to apply any preasure to bp to establish a escrow account, infact from a political standpoint, it makes good sense that they do it freely to establish good will with American People. all this media coverage and stupid questions by both the media and polititians alike is beyond belief to me, no one wants that oil leak stopped more than bp. I havent seen BP not accept responsibility for this, from day one they have been out there apologizing, and working day and nite to stop the leak. this isnt like ford with the pinto, or toyota with the camery, denying anything is wrong. its an environmental tragedy for sure, but it happened, and with gods help it will be fixed.
For all you people that blame everything on the president? at the time this happened, we also had a guy park a car bomb in ny, a flood in nashville, two wars, a messed up economy, I dont know how the guy gets any sleep at all, I know for myself, its all i can do to get through a day listening to people bitch about getting screwed out 2 cents on an expired coupon.
Well said. As a Hurrican IKE survivor (which wasn't on the front page a week and I am still waiting to get my final payment from State Farmbut do you see me with a plasma tv and a case of beer?) I say you are right. We have lots to be greatful for and lots more that we should be focused on!