One doesn’t have to be crazy to get elected to the Congress – but it helps.
So let me get this straight: seemingly angry that his amigos at BP (“Bustamante Pendejos,” according to @DCDebbie) got their corporate arms twisted by President Obama to ante up a $20 billion down payment for the carnage they wreaked on the Gulf of Mexico, Texas Congressman Joe Barton said yesterday the President’s demand “amounts to a shakedown.”
Shakedown is street for extortion, you see, and the esteemed representative from Texas, who couldn’t possibly be close to Big Oil interests back home, was saying the President of the United States was acting like a thug to demand BP put money immediately on the table to pay for attempting to kill the Gulf of Mexico.
“I’m ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday,” said Congressman Barton. “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 — in this case a $20 billion shakedown.”
Mr. Barton followed up his comments by suggesting we might have acted a little hastily back in 1776.
Just kidding about that last part.
Seriously, are these guys nuts or what? Let’s look this up in Politics for Dummies. Yep, there it is…page 174: “A good political strategy is ALWAYS taking up for major multinational corporations who are responsible for the worst environmental and social disaster in the history of the United States.”
Good move, Mr. Barton.
But Barton is not Batman. He did not act alone. Turns out Congress is full of dweebs who express similar comments and sympathies.
While many members of Congress, including the leaders of his own party, decried Barton’s moronic expressions, other chimed right in.
“BP’s reported willingness to go along with the White House’s new fund suggests that the Obama Administration is hard at work exerting its brand of Chicago-style shakedown politics,” said Congressman Tom Price, Republican of Jawja.
And the hits just keep on comin’ from the unbelievably stupid. Thanks to Mother Jones Magazine, we have a list of the dumbest comments flatulently gushing forth from some congressional orifices.
Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, way back in May, said of the oil spill, “Accidents happen. You learn from them and you try to make sure they don’t happen again.”
Texas Congressman Pete Olson said of the 6-month moratorium on drilling in wake of the oil spill devastation: “This is a kneejerk reaction by the administration to address a problem that doesn’t exist.”
Fellow Texan Ralph Hall said: “It’s a shame we can’t drill ANWR. It’s a shame we don’t get that energy off the coast of Florida,” and followed it up with: “I resent the fact that [Obama's] trying to blame some of this on Bush. On 9/11 I don’t remember Bush trying to blame this on Clinton.”
You just can’t make up this stuff.
Senator Bob Bennett of Utah, recently considered by the erudite Tea Baggers as not conservative enough for re-election said earlier this month, “The bridge to that promised land of renewable energy is built out of fossil fuels.”
Illinois Senator and President Abraham Lincoln said, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”
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