Fending off the oil while waiting for history to make

A lot of different thoughts cloud my mind right now regarding the massive Gulf of Mexico oil leak. Primarily, I think we need to “stop the damn leak.” But that has proved to be some kind of difficult.

I am glad that the pundits and those who oppose the President are so right and sure about matters that they can lay everything at Obama’s feet. I feel history will judge whether he acted swiftly enough and surely enough. I can’t help but think Obama is not only getting some bad advice, but has for quite some time received bad advice. I say that just taking all in total. That too, however, will only be judged by history.

The pundits have me pretty irked. This Newsweek article aptly tells how I feel about the pundits before and after the president’s speech on the oil spill. CNN made such a big deal about the broadcast coming from the Oval Office and essentially compared the speech to other great events like Nixon’s resignation, Reagan talking about the Space Shuttle Challenger’s explosion and GW Bush speaking from the Oval after 9/11. To those on the Gulf Coast, this event is perhaps that momentous, but the punditry just goes way overboard interpreting symbolism sometimes.

Finally, Texas Republican Rep. Joe Barton made one of the most shameful remarks a legislator could make today when he apologized during a congressional hearing on the oil spill to BP CEO Tony Hayward.

Yes, the same Joe Barton who has never met an energy company executive with a bag full of money he didn’t like had the gall to call the meeting between Obama and Hayward yesterday in the White House “a shakedown.” Talking about pot calling the kettle black. How many oil company and electric company and nuclear power company executives have Joe Barton shaken down over the years? Of course, if they got rid of all the hypocrites in Congress most of the two chambers, including pretty much all the GOP sides, would be missing.

It gets a little old to see the congressional members get their little spotlight in which they can either light into the villain of the day or else kiss their asses.

We shall see what we shall see. Too bad all those folks on the Gulf Coast have their lives hanging in the balance while we wait on that which becomes history.

UPDATE: Barton later apologized for the “misconstruction” of his comments toward Hayward after apparently being threatened with the loss of a House committee position by GOP leadership. The dressing down must have been with House Minority Leader John Boehner holding his nose. It seems the Ohio pol bought some $50,000 in BP stock just months before the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig from which the massive oil spill began. On the other hand. Maybe Boehner was jealous that he didn’t shakedown BP after its wealth spiraled downward.