Thursday, June 24, 2010

Barton To Keep Energy Post Despite Public Disapproval

Todd J. Gillman for the Dallas Morning News had written that despite making an apology to British Petroleum, Arlington Rep. Joe Barton would keep his position as the top Republican in charge of energy policy. While Barton made his apology to British Petroleum on behalf of Congress public, he decided to apologize for his apology privately - probably to prevent even more publicity surrounding his original comments.

The GOP seemed satisfied with the apology, and had decided to keep Barton on.
Barton, in his first public comment since the incident last week, noted that he serves "at the pleasure" of fellow Republicans, adding: "I hope that the conference has confidence to allow me to continue to serve."

"My job is to do the best I can ... and then we'll see what happens in November," Barton said.
A poll of Texans proved to show that most disapprove of Barton's apology. More Texans also wished for Barton to step down from his post, but it seems the GOP did not care about the thoughts of those whom Barton is supposed to represent.

"House Republicans' decision to keep British Petroleum apologist Joe Barton on as the top Republican in charge of energy policy is consistent with their governing philosophy of choosing corporate special interests over middle-class families," said Ryan Rudominer, national spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

While Democrats seek to keep this story in the news, Republicans want to quickly sweep this thing under the rug, hence the private apology and the attacks against the Democrats for bringing up Barton's apology.

"I don't think it takes a political strategist to know that some on the Democrat side would like to keep this story going as long as they possibly can," said Texas Sen. John Cornyn , who heads the GOP's Senate campaign committee. "But there really isn't anything left. Congressman Barton has apologized for his apology. Everyone has uniformly said that the only people that should apologize is BP, and I really do think that's the end of it." 

Senator Cornyn seems to be mistaken - Barton never apologized to his constituents or to Americans who face losing their livelihood because of the disaster, who are the root of the $20 billion "shakedown" from British Petroleum.  To apologize to the company because they have to pony up the cash to fix their mess is like a direct attack on those affected by the disaster and Barton needs to pay the price - he needs to publicly apologize and he needs to step down from his post.

It is obvious why the GOP wants Barton to remain in his position - he has proven that he is an ally of Big Oil and will be a sure thing in voting against alternative energy and climate change legislation. 

"They're beating a dead horse," said Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md. "It's over and done." 

Of course the GOP would say the Democrats are "beating a dead horse" - their agenda was revealed to America and now they have to do damage control.  Just consider the comments circulating around the right-wing media - most condemn the escrow account and believe the administration is being to harsh on the foreign company.    

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