Fox has been parading a long line of
Republicans through their studios defending U.S. Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) for
calling British Petroleum’s $ 20 Billion escrow fund a government shakedown. BP
set up the escrow fund to offset the economic devastation brought to the Gulf
region by their oil platform disaster.
The escrow fund idea was proposed by BP
itself, at the prodding of Republicans who endorsed the idea well before
President Obama ever heard of it.
This story is another example of the
harm done by allowing talk radio & Fox define the debate rather than
elected republican officials and aspiring candidates to define the GOP.
No one has heard any objection to the
escrow fund from Mitt Romney yet. Has Mitch Daniels termed it a “shakedown”?
Bobby Jindal seems cool with the idea, ditto Mitch McConnell. But these real
leaders are crowded out by people trying to bump ratings a point or two by
inciting another prime time hour’s worth of anti-Obama indignation.
In so doing, they have put the GOP on
the wrong side of what Newt Gingrich, in other contexts, calls “an 80% issue.”
Watch the Republicans defend Rep.
Barton and BP on Fox here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu2lvAm-Zuc&feature=player_embedded
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