No, the heading of this post is not a reference to the tragic deaths of the eleven men killed from the horrific explosion and fire on that Gulf oil rig.  Nor is that heading alluding to the environmental devastation being wrought upon Gulf coast region by the oil spill.  And it is not even a commentary on the hardships the people of the Gulf coast are experiencing.

Quite to the contrary.  

That statement was Texas Republican Representative Joe Barton’s characterization of the outcome of the meeting between BP executives and President Obama in the Oval Office on Wednesday – where BP voluntarily agreed to pay $20 Billion into a fund to cover legal claims for the oil spill.  Barton seems to think that BP had no choice in the matter – describing it as a political “shakedown” – and then openly apologized to BP’s embattled CEO, Tony Hayward, as more Congressional hearings got underway this morning.  Here is what Barton had to say:

“I’m ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday . . . [it's] a tragedy of the first proportion, that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown, a $20 billion shakedown.”

Furthermore, Barton attempted to insinuate that BP was denied it’s right to utilize the legal system by invoking the constitutional doctrine of  “due process and fairness” - thereby concluding that BP entered the agreement under duress, thus ostensibly elevating it to the level of “a tragedy of first proportion”; at least in Barton’s obviously warped world-view. 

If anything, Barton’s response is so remarkably disproportionate, it begs the question as to how he could reach such an extraordinarily nonsensical conclusion?  Want a not so little clue?

M-$-O-$-N-$-E-$-Y!

Barton – who is the top Congressional recipient of almost $1.5 million in political campaign contributions from the oil industry over the past 20 years – is just another shameless Big Oil shill in Washington, who is willing to do the bidding for their interests; all while placing the interests of average Americans at the bottom of the barrel.

Barton may be the only Republican brazen enough, or outright stupid enough, to say what he really thinks.  I guess money and power will do that to you.  Other Republicans simply insinuated that it was another Obama-style government takeover, of sorts.  Their “measured responses” are just a veil for the same manner of thinking. 

Meanwhile, as I am just finishing writing this post, Barton has suddenly issued a retraction of his earlier apology to BP CEO Tony Hayward – not so ironically, under duress from Republican leadership.  In Barton’s mind, that is probably compounding the “tragedy of first proportion”?  But even soul-less politicians have to compromise from time-to-time.

Nevertheless, don’t be fooled.  After all, defending Corporate America is the primary business of the Republicans.  Meanwhile, the small business owners of the Gulf Coast are cast afloat on a proverbial sea of oil, all going to Hell in a hand-basket together.

Let’s just hope the voters remember that come November.