Saved by the Barton

I first discovered Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) when he appeared on The Daily Show during the Bush-Cheney Administration and had brought a pair of Texas cowboy boots for Jon Stewart's young child. Then Barton revealed that the shoes had "GOP" embroidered on them, like some sort of good ol' boy joke. You knew at that moment that Stewart would never give them to his kid. With that gloaty touch Barton revealed himself as the opposite of a generous spirit. As he continued to reveal in his thought-free, party-line conversation with Stewart, he's what my father used to call a horse's ass.
Today Barton did the unthinkable. A day after President Barak Obama's masterstroke of getting Gulf-killer BP to commit to a $20 billion fund as a start to cover people who are losing their livelihoods due to BP's criminal negligence, Barton apologized to the CEO of BP!



Yep, venal Republicans like Boss Limbaugh, Michelle Bachmann and Haley Barbour are taking the stance that the $20B is a "shakedown." They want to see "due process" -- this from a party that has been complaining that the President hasn't acted fast enough on the Gulf!

The only response now is incredulity and even the GOP leadership felt it today, reportedly threatening Barton with the loss of his top seat on the Energy committee if he did not apologize to the American people, first orally and later in writing. Yep, he had a worse day that BP CEO Tony Hayward -- who managed, as so many bad guys have lately, to say nothing substantive when called in front of Congress.

Both Hayward and the Democrats, especially President Obama, owe Barton a debt of gratitude. He made everybody else look good -- in the eyes of our every-so-easily distracted media. And have given great a hammer to use against the GOP in November.

In fact, although his speech may have taken up too much media time in negative analysis, our President is, as Andrew Sullivan puts it, "getting shit done." Those on the Left who are complaining, despairing and generally once again building their circular firing squad would do well to read Sullivan's piece and take note.