Should BP pay for the damage to the Gulf and all those Gulf residents affected by the spill? Absolutely. Did Obama do a shakedown of BP?  Of course. Does this stuff go on between elected officials and corporations all the time? Yes. Are both the Obama administration and BP corrupt? Yes. Was some kind of a backroom deal done before the so-called “meeting” the other day? Yes. Will a bunch of the set aside money end up in the pockets of Democrat politicians, local elected officials, outfits like Acorn, trial lawyers and unions? Yes.

Joe Barton’s real stupidity was to just not keep his mouth shut until this deal failed like everything else Obama has tried to do and then, when the chickens come home to roost, he and the rest of the Republicans would have had a huge club to beat the Democrats over the head with. I don’t expect elected Republicans to be geniuses, I just want them to be endowed with some political common sense and maybe figure out that when your enemy is hanging himself with his own rope just let him go ahead and do it. Yeah, Joe Barton was telling the truth but there are winning and loosing ways to do it.