Thursday, June 24, 2010

What others are saying

With the Obama administration's masterful bungling of the Gulf oil spill as a ploy to distract us from a not-yet-ready-for-prime-time economic recovery and a perilous situation in Afghanistan, the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson whines about Republicans and Joe "Shakedown" Barton:

Joe Barton is not alone. The Texas congressman's lavish sympathy for BP -- which he sees not as perpetrator of a preventable disaster but as victim of a White House "shakedown" -- is actually what passes for mainstream opinion among conservative Republicans today.


As does the Post's Dana Milbank who dons his Rip Van Winkle costume:
Republicans, in turn, have reached new levels of presidential disrespect. After Obama pushed BP to set aside money for those hurt by the oil spill, the opposition apologized -- to BP. Jon Kyl (Ariz.), the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, took the extraordinary step of attacking Obama at a political rally over comments he says (and the White House denies) the president made in a private meeting
.
Dude. Criticizing a President? At a political rally? It never used to be that way.

There's nothing more detrimental to keeping focus than an easy victory. As such, we hope the "other side" picks up their game a bit. At this time, the last thing we need is for any drape-measuring by the Republicans before November.

1 comment:

Road Dawg said...

Stossel is right, ORielly is wrong,

What are the rules? Who gets to put in a claim? What constitutes damage? What if I feel that the White house is only awarding money to Democrats (or Republicans or Methodists or whatever)? End quote

Of course, what happens to all shakedown money? unfairly gotten means unfairly distributed.

Having provided loss settlements involving business interuption, documentation is key. This will be a bigger give-away as the "poor me" crowd gets their face in the press.

The lawyers and forensic accountants will make bundles on this and the fishermen and strippers actually damaged by the interuption will get diminished returns.