How many of these Republicans are going to say totally ignorant stuff and then "profusely apologize" for it 24 hours later?? What is wrong with these these people?? Are that many of them truly that dense?? 
Date: Friday, June 18, 2010
By: Frederick Cosby, Special to BlackAmericaWeb.com
Republican House Rep. Joe Barton profusely apologized Thursday for apologizing to BP’s chief executive for what he called a “$20 billion shakedown” by President Barack Obama’s White House in getting BP to create a cleanup and compensation fund for victims of the Gulf Coast oil spill.
Barton (R-Texas), the ranking Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, issued his second “I’m sorry” after he was taken to the political woodshed by fellow Republicans who didn’t want to be seen siding with the company responsible for the greatest oil disaster in U.S. history.
“I apologize for using the term ‘shakedown’ with regard to yesterday’s actions at the White House, and I retract my apology to BP,” Barton said in a written statement. “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.”
“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,” Barton concluded.
Barton caused jaws to drop at an Energy and Commerce hearing Wednesday when he told BP chief executive Tony Hayward, who testified at the hearing, that he was “ashamed of the White House’s treatment of BP."
“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 shakedown,” he said in his opening statement at the hearing.
Barton added that if he, as a member of Congress, told a private company to pony up money like that, “I’d go to jail and should go to jail.”
Republican leaders, aware of the public anger generated from images of oil spewing from the damaged well and sloshing ashore along parts of the Louisiana coast, scrambled to distance themselves from Barton.
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) issued a rare joint statement saying Barton’s remarks “were wrong.”
“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 statement said. “The families and businesspeople in the Gulf region want leadership, accountability and action from BP and the administration. It is unacceptable that, 59 days, after this crisis began, no solution is forthcoming.”
Boehner, asked about Barton’s BP apology during his weekly news conference, told reporters that “I have said since the beginning that BP ought to be help responsible for every dime of this tragedy ... And they ought to be held accountable to stop the leak and get it cleaned up as soon as possible.”
Asked if he disagreed with Barton’s initial assessment of Obama securing the $20 billion fund, Boehner flatly responded, “I do.”
Barton’s apology to BP prompted Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), whose coastal Pensacola district is being affected by the spill, to call on Barton to quit as the head Republican on the energy and commerce committee.
“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 written statement. “He should step down as ranking member of the Committee.”
Democrats, needless to say, had a field day over Barton’s comments. The Democratic National Committee quickly posted a video on YouTube titled “I Apologize,” which shows footage of Barton addressing Hayward at the energy and commerce hearing.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters “What is shameful is that Joe Barton seems to have more concern for big corporations that caused this disaster than the fishermen, small business owners and communities whose lives have been devastated by the destruction.”
Daniel J. Weiss, a senior fellow and director of climate strategy for the Center for American Progress, expressed amazement Thursday that Republicans would criticize Obama for trying to get compensation from BP because Exxon fought so long and hard after the Valdez oil disaster in Alaska that 8,000 people died waiting for their claims to be settled.
“Obama gets $20 billion, and the Republicans criticize him for extracting a deal that cost the government no money and was voluntary on the part of BP,” Weiss said.
Republicans may have rushed to pile on Barton, but it seems that his “shakedown” comment was a talking point in the making for GOP lawmakers to use against Obama.
On Wednesday – a day before Barton’s BP apology - Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), chair of the Republican Study Committee, said “BP reported willingness to go along with the White House’s new fund suggests that the Obama administration is hard at work exerting its brand of Chicago-style shakedown politics.”
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, echoed Barton’s concern about Obama’s approach to BP.
“Representative Barton is expressing some concern about - that I share the concern - is this has really become a political issue for the president, and he's trying to deal with it by showing how tough he's being against BP,” Cornyn said. "The problem is BP's the only one who really is in control of shutting down this well, and he's trying to mitigate, I think, his own political problems."
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), a conservative Tea Party favorite, was quoted as telling the Heritage Foundation think tank on Tuesday that the $20 billion fund was a "redistribution-of-wealth fund."
"And now it appears like we'll be looking at one more gateway for more government control, more money to government," the Minnesota Independent quoted Bachmann as saying.
I mean, this man has been in the House for the past 25 years!! And he (and all these other Republicans) said what he really feels. He just had to apologize for it because it shows him to be the corrupt, bought-and-paid-for-by-corporate-America politician that he is if he doesn't say he's sorry he said it. (As if he really means it! 
).
