Apparently blood isn't thicker than oil
By Dana Milbank
WashPost
Friday, June 18, 2010
Everybody knew there would be a spectacle when BP's chief executive, Tony Hayward, came to testify before Congress. Capitol Police lined the driveway to the Rayburn building, scores of photographers staked out every corner, and aspiring hecklers slept in line overnight to be assured they would get a seat in the hearing room.
But what nobody could have anticipated is that the spectacle would have little to do with the Englishman at the witness table. The radioactivity came, rather, from the top row of the dais, where Joe Barton, the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, gave a most unusual opening statement.
"I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday," the Texan said of BP's offer, under pressure from President Obama, to set aside $20 billion to pay damages to Gulf Coast residents ruined by the oil spill. "I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown."
Heads of the other committee members spun, cartoon-like, in the direction of Barton. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) froze, her coffee cup suspended equidistant between tabletop and lips. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the panel chairman, scrunched his face and shook his head as though he had just witnessed a bloody wreck.
(More here.)
WashPost
Friday, June 18, 2010
Everybody knew there would be a spectacle when BP's chief executive, Tony Hayward, came to testify before Congress. Capitol Police lined the driveway to the Rayburn building, scores of photographers staked out every corner, and aspiring hecklers slept in line overnight to be assured they would get a seat in the hearing room.
But what nobody could have anticipated is that the spectacle would have little to do with the Englishman at the witness table. The radioactivity came, rather, from the top row of the dais, where Joe Barton, the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, gave a most unusual opening statement.
"I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday," the Texan said of BP's offer, under pressure from President Obama, to set aside $20 billion to pay damages to Gulf Coast residents ruined by the oil spill. "I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown."
Heads of the other committee members spun, cartoon-like, in the direction of Barton. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) froze, her coffee cup suspended equidistant between tabletop and lips. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the panel chairman, scrunched his face and shook his head as though he had just witnessed a bloody wreck.
(More here.)
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