Joe the Oil Apologist

Remember way back in 2008 when Joe the Plumber burst onto the scene and was quickly anointed a hero by John McCain and Fox News? Turned out of course that he was neither "Joe" nor a working plumber but his temporary elevation to cult status probably to some extent presaged the rise of the so-called Tea Party. BTW, do you ever wonder if say Joe Biden were President whether the Tea Party rhetoric would be so vicious? Just saying.

Anyway, back to our latest Joe hero--actually named Joe Barton. He's the Republican congressman from Texas, long financed by the oil industry, who's the ranking minority member on the House Energy Committee (he'll be chairman if the Republicans win the House in November). At today's Committee hearing called to publicly excoriate BP CEO Tony Hayward, Joe briefly stole the show when he "apologized" to Hayward for yesterday's White House "shakedown" (Joe's words) whereby BP agreed to forego its 2010 dividend and place $20 billion in an escrow fund to compensate victims (those "small people" as called by BP's Chairman the other day!) of the Gulf of Mexico spill.


After both Democrats (no surprise) and the Republican leadership (doing damage control) disavowed Joe's remarks, Joe spent the afternoon retracting his earlier "apology", in effect apologizing for it. He, of course had been threatened with having his seniority rights stripped away, a fate second only to losing his oil industry donations. After all the "spin" cleared what remained was the absolute certainty that Joe really meant it all along--and he's hardly the only "oil apologist"in the Republican ranks. Had the spill gone West, towards Texas, instead of heading East, TNB wonders what apology Joe would have uttered.


What is it with the name Joe anyway? During the last State of the Union address, President Obama was heckled from the House floor by previously obscure GOP representative Joe Wilson of Georgia who promptly raked in millions in donations. Is there any doubt that this a great country? TNB may change his name to "Joe the Blogger"--guaranteed to be a winner.