WASHINGTON – A Republican U.S. representative apologized to BP CEO Tony Hayward on Thursday, saying BP (BP.N) (BP.L) was the victim of the White House “shakedown” by establishing a 20 billion U.S. dollars Gulf oil spill fund, a remark that both Democrats and Republicans angrily. Joe Barton of Texas, a major purchaser of oil and gas industry campaign contributions, they received ridicule for his unusual apology for the oil giant that he later withdrew his statement.
At the beginning of a Congress hearing with testimony from Hayward, Barton said it was “a tragedy of the first part that a private company can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown, a shakedown 20 billion U.S. dollars.”
“I speak only for myself, I am not speaking for the Republican party … but I’m ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday,” Barton said Hayward.
Hours later, his statement Barton terminated after Vice President Joe Biden condemned the remarks as “outrageous” and the Republican leaders of the House of Representatives a joint statement denouncing.
“I apologize for using the term” shakedown “on the action yesterday at the White House in my opening statement this morning, and I withdraw my apology, BP,” said Barton.
He added: “I deplore the effect that my statement this morning implied that BP did not have to pay for the consequences of their decisions and actions in this incident.”
Barton was the statement of his own Republicans on the defensive, and Democrats gave hope to find a way to ward off expected losses to the Republicans in Congress November 2 election.
At the White House, President Barack Obama shook his head in reply and said: “I do not know why anyone would say that,” said spokesman Robert Gibbs.
Obama on Wednesday put pressure on BP establishing the compensation for the Gulf spilled during a meeting in the White House.
“Extremely insensitive ‘
“I find it incredibly insensitive, incredibly out of touch,” Biden told reporters. “There is not a shakedown. It is to insist on responsible behavior and responsible reaction to something they caused.”
Barton’s position was politically dangerous because the Americans are largely to blame for the devastating spill and BP want the big company to pay.
His attitude was bound to be unpopular in the Gulf region, where the leakage is devastation on the economy – the unemployed fishermen and hotel and restaurants are struggling in an area heavily dependent on tourism.
House Republican leaders John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Mike Pence separate itself from Barton.
“Congressman Barton’s statements this morning were wrong. BP itself has acknowledged responsibility for the economic damage lies with them and has offered an initial pledge of $ 20 billion U.S. dollars for that purpose,” they said.
Even Hayward disagreed with Barton’s description of the escrow account as a slush fund. ”
“I do not think it was a slush fund,” he told the hearing.
Gibbs said the White House Republicans have questioned whether their party should Barton leading representative of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce are. There were a number of Barton’s position to lose.
BARTON Not Alone
But Barton was not only among Republicans, the issue of 20 billion U.S. dollars to fund.
Georgia Representative Tom Price, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, a group of conservative House members, a statement issued the same point argument.
Price said BP’s willingness to go along with new funding from the White House points out that the government Obama is “hard at work carrying out its brand of Chicago-style shakedown politics.”
And Texas Republican Representative Dick Armey former, who was House Majority Leader and is a leading voice in the conservative movement Tea Party, told a Christian Science Monitor breakfast this week that Obama’s constitutional power to establish such a fund is missing.
Moreover, conservative Republican Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota told the Heritage Foundation think tank that the escrow account was a “redistribution-of-wealth fund.”
Barton is the biggest consumer of oil and gas industry campaign contributions in the House of Representatives, according to partisan Center for Responsive Politics.
The data showed that Barton has collected $ 1,447,880 from political action committees and individuals connected with the oil and gas industry since 1989.
source:reuters
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