Perhaps a rudimentary definition of the role of government would be worth mentioning given Joe Barton's unhinged apology to BP yesterday. On what planet has Joe Barton been living? Maybe Rush Limbaugh and his hate talk and profit driven corporate lobbyists have overwhelmed and confused Republican politicians like Joe Barton.
According to elementary school level civics, the federal government, as established by the Constitution, is a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
Joe Barton and John Cornyn, too, have obviously forgotten why they run for office and who they are supposed to represent. Contrary to Texas Republican belief we are not, gentlemen, a government run by corporations, for corporations, and of corporations. In other words, you dudes work for us, i.e. we the people. You do not work for BP and your deep pocketed campaign contributors.
Get the message or get fired by your bosses. That would be people like me and not BP CEO Tony Hayward.
Joe Barton, we know that you had at one time worked for ARCO, but dude, you left that oil job in 1984 when you chose a new career in government.
I guess you did not fully grasp the job description of your second career.
I wonder why Joe and John run for jobs in a federal government that all Republicans claim to loath with every fiber of their being?
Maybe Joe and John found themselves somewhat confused when two oil boys, W. and Cheney ran the federal government as if they were CEO and COO of a Fortune 500 firm. History also tells us that Tom Delay, the Hammer, when serving as U.S. House Speaker, may have also caused some confusion when he ushered in the lobbyists and the GOP turned over its lawmaking role to their corporate masters.
In 2008 we the "small people" voted in a new crew to clean up after the unbelievable mess that the Texas Republicans made in Washington. We the small people also demand a thorough purging and cleansing of the old and evil ways of the Bush years.
Joe and John should be reminded that no President, including Mr. Obama, is the CEO of the United Corporations of America. In order to pound the simple into your corporate wired heads, gentlemen, according to first grade civics the President is elected into office to serve the people of the United States of America, just as U.S. Representatives (Joe) and Senators (John) are.
After the most recent election voters are especially fortunate because with President Obama, for the first time in decades, the people have a President who has our backs.
President Obama wrested $20 billion from BP in order to make reparations for the environmental and economic destruction and devastation it caused to the region. When BP took short cuts to turn a quick profit and its willfully unsafe rig blew up, BP declared a form of warfare on the region of the Gulf. Eleven workers were unnecessarily killed. They left behind grief stricken families and fatherless children. Who will take care of and support their children?
Do Republicans like Joe Barton and John Cornyn care? History tells us that W. and Cheney sure as hell did not.
According to the President's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, Mr. Obama sees himself as the final line of defense against free market excesses.
Joe and John's heads must be exploding.
Mr. Obama clearly sees his presidency as far more than a bully pulpit - he has cast himself as a last line of defense against market excesses that take many different forms. "In the past, corporate America was not only at the table, they owned the table and the chairs around it," Mr. Obama's combative chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, said in an interview Thursday. "Obama doesn't start off confrontational, but he will be confrontational if there is resistance to the notion that there are other equities."
The corporate owned tables and chairs have been removed from the government's offices.
Poor Joe and John. They have no clue as to how to behave in a room without corporate owned tables and chairs. Where are they to sit?
The corporate fat cats can no longer eat all of the food at the table, either.
What will Joe and John tell their favorite caterers given there are no more free lunches, provided at taxpayer expense, for their corporate masters?
"My view is, you give them a seat at the table, they eat all the food! You cannot compromise with these people. When you negotiate with them, they win. You have to beat them. You have to take them on."
Joe, John and their Republican colleagues have been losing, on behalf of the people, to the corporations for a long time. And they have done an A+ job of letting their masters gobble up all of the food, compliments of we the little taxpayers.
Mr. Obama's aides clearly relished the idea of a Texas Republican dependent on donors from the energy industry who was actually apologizing to BP. As a political strategy, they appear to be adapting the course taken by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who seized on a mood of distrust when, in the closing days of the 1936 campaign, he said: "I should like to have it said of my first administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match." When the applause subsided, he added: "I should like to have it said of my second administration that in it these forces met their master."
If there is no place for the greedy, the selfish and those who have a lust of power in today's Administration perhaps Joe Barton, John Cornyn and Republicans that have sold their souls to their corporate masters should find another line of work.
It is my understanding that lobbying jobs pay very lucrative salaries. But the health care coverage benefits apparently pale in comparison to that offered to elected lawmakers, compliments of the U.S. taxpayer.
