BP CEO Tony Hayward preparing for his congressional testimony today
Well, watching Hayward’s congressional testimony thus far has been a frustrating exercise, more a textbook example of lawyered up stonewalling.
The Mustache of Justice, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), tried in vain to get him to answer the questions posed in the committee’s letter they sent to him Monday. The letter identifies five key engineering decisions made by the company that indicates they chose profit over safety.
Hayward didn’t answer any of them, saying he was out of the loop, that the company is doing a detail internal investigation, blah blah blah.
The highlight so far was Texas Rethuglican Joe Barton apologizing to Hayward for Obama’s “shakedown” yesterday when he got a commitment from BP to set up an open-ended $20b escrow fund to pay claims. Said Barton, now an instant Tea Bagger hero:
I do not want to live in a country where anything a citizen or corporation does something that is … wrong is subject to some sort of political pressure, that again, in my words, amounts to a shakedown.
As Rhandi Rhodes is fond of saying:
Don’t let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya
UPDATE 12:55 PST:
I’ve heard Van Jones say this before, and he just said it again on MSNBC in the context of Barton’s apology to Tony Hayward. (Jones was Obama’s former green energy adviser until Glenn Dreck, et al, succeeded in getting him fired for remarks he once made about the 9/11 Commission.)
Paraphrasing, Obama’s victory in getting BP to commit to a $20b escrow fund proves that he’s kicking BP’s ass while corporate fellators like Barton are busy kissing it.
Heh.
Meanwhile, Barton is catching all sorts of hell from his fellow Rethugs, one of whom is demanding that he resign his committee chairmanship. The White House immediately came out with a strongly worded written statement, followed by a live followup from VP Joe Biden.
Christmas has come early for the Dems.
i would have bet that tony’s legs were bonier.
‘Barton is catching all sorts of hell from his fellow Rethugs, one of whom is demanding that he resign his committee chairmanship.’
That’s what happens when you give the game away to the marks.
Barton may have gotten squeezed by a panicked bagman, or there might have been an incipient ‘senior moment’ whereby he became somewhat hazy about the relative transparency of who fills his coffers…Nevertheless, it’s always nice of a subordinate to take the heat off a superior for a while, earning those campaign contributions just as a loyal stooge should.
Of course, all will be forgiven once these pesky hounds cease their baying. An owned useful fool is still owned and useful, even when caught publicly wiping the results of their ‘fluffing’ from the corners of their foolish mouths.
Apologies, Urantians…I’m in an exceptionally cynical mood today.
;>)
Whoa, hear that?!? Some sort of cosmic ripple just reverberated throughout the cosmos! Someone (DB, no less) offered apologies to “Urantians”! …who generally own the majority shares in cynicism; you’re just a trendy fellow, DB, and we love you for it. 😉
Xmas may have come for the Dems, but will they know how to make it work this time? It seems Xmas has come several times and each time, the Dems, have acted more nervous and unsure than a two tailed cat in a rocking chair factory.
Hey Seeing Eye, you don’t think good fate and fortune has any power to grow Democratic spines, now do you? This bunch is going to get culled one way or another; I just hope it’s with better qualified Democrats and not Sharon “2nd Amendment Remedies” Angle-types.
SEC
Maybe the Dems have been bitch slapped enuff by now to get a clue. See, e.g., this.