After Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) apologized to BP last week for the White House “shakedown” of the oil giant, Obama Administration hit the airwaves this weekend and claimed that Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) would head the Energy and Commerce Committee when the GOP takes back the House from the radicals in November.
Not true.
The Politico reported:
The pitch: BP-apologist Joe Barton would head the Energy and Commerce Committee if Republicans win the House.
The salesmen: White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.
The truth: Not so much.
But that’s not stopping Democrats from continuing to hawk the Barton-as-chairman storyline…
Democrats believe – with good reason – that Barton handed them an already wrapped gift when he apologized to BP last week for a supposed White House “shakedown” that resulted in the company handing the reins of a $20 billion claims fund to a government-appointed independent third party.
They’ve been pressing the case to voters.
“[I]t’s dangerous for the American people, because while the ranking Republican would have oversight into the energy industry, and if the Republicans were the majority, would have actually the gavel and the chairmanship,” Emanuel said on ABC’s This Week Sunday.
Gibbs tweeted this last week: “Who would the GOP put in charge of overseeing the energy industry & Big Oil if they won control of Congress? Yup, u guessed it – JOE BARTON.”
But Barton has somewhere between zero and no chance of being the Energy and Commerce Committee chairman next year, according to Republican rules and sources.
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