Friday, June 11, 2010
Arkansas Politics Do GOP candidates back BP? UPDATES
Posted by Max Brantley on Fri, Jun 11, 2010 at 9:51 AM
Maybe the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is reading the Arkansas Blog. I noted yesterday House Minority Leader John Boehner's damaging comments yesterday that expressed a clear sympathy for limiting BP's exposure to damages from the Gulf oil disaster.
Today, the DCCC wants to hear from Republican congressional candidates Tim Griffin (an admirer of Boeher who's running in the 2nd District) and from Rick Crawford (1st District) on what American taxpayers and the tens of thousands damaged along the coast should demand from BP. Release on jump.
I've sent questions on the subject to the Griffin and Crawford campaigns (and Democratic opponents, too). I'll add responses if any materialize.
I think this is a whale of an issue. Of course, there are Democrats, too, who might prove unwilling to demand all that should be demanded of BP for this disaster. Corporate accountability is not much in fashion in Washington.
UPDATE: A statement through Rick Crawford's spokemsan:
Rick believes that - as with the economy - President Obama has handled the spill's aftermath poorly because he's been too focused on advancing a liberal agenda and not focused enough on the things that matter to everyday folks. Both Obama and BP have fallen down on the job here, and it is Rick's hope that they get their act together before even more damage is done. The federal government should hold BP fully accountable, with no liability cap. While Rick still favors offshore drilling as part of a broad-based plan to wean ourselves off foreign oil, this tragedy has spotlighted the need for more oversight and greater accountability.
A prepared statement from his opponent, Democrat Chad Causey:
BP needs to be held accountable and BP should pay for the clean up, not the taxpayers of Arkansas and the US. I'm not satisfied with how anyone has handled this: BP, the Administration, or any Member of Congress defending BP. There shouldn't be a cap on their liability. They caused it. They should pay for it.
Said Tim Griffin through a spokesman:
Tim believes it’s common sense: BP — not the American taxpayer — is responsible for the disaster in the Gulf and must bear the entire financial burden to clean it up
I've followed up with Griffin on the liability cap. And here's the interesting UPDATE:
“I believe that, in this case, the liability cap is most likely a moot issue because BP will pay all applicable costs regardless of the statutory limit. The idea of a liability cap is a good one because it encourages investment and competition, which leads to innovation and job creation. Without it, only the very largest companies can compete, and highly successful smaller companies will be forced from the market. The current liability cap is 20 years old and should be increased, especially in light of the disaster in the Gulf"
Said Democrat Joyce Elliott:
In the interest of preserving our natural resources, we should seriously explore ways of ending our dependence on oil, especially that extracted via deep well drilling. We should set incremental goals and stick to them. We can do so as we ramp up our support for and use of alternative energy sources.I agree with the moratorium. We need independently validated assurances that credible, reliable measures are in place to prevent another BP-like disaster.
BP should be solely responsible for the cleanup but I am not in favor of the government or others sitting on the sidelines at the risk of further unspeakable damage if BP can't get the job done.
I am open to being educated beyond my present knowledge, but presently I don't there should be a cap on damages.
DCCC NEWS RELEASE
Do Newly Nominated Republican Candidates Rick Crawford and Tim Griffin Agree with Republican Leader Boehner's Big Oil Bailout?
Yesterday, House Republican Leader John Boehner sided with big business, declaring that U.S. taxpayers should bailout big oil giant BP, which left American taxpayers with an economic and environmental catastrophe. The question is whether Boehner’s newest candidates in Arkansas agrees with House Republican Leader John Boehner’s Big Oil Bailout.
“Rick Crawford and Tim Griffin need to answer whether they support their Republican Leader, John Boehner, and his Big Oil bailout,” said Jesse Ferguson, Southern Regional Press Secretary at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “As some of the newest Republican nominees, its time they made clear whether they’ll stand up to big special interests and oil money or not. The last thing Arkansas families need is another Washington insider protecting Big Oil while leaving American taxpayers with the bill.”
BACKGROUND
House Republican Leader John Boehner backed Tom Donohue, President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in saying taxpayers should help pick up the tab. I think the people responsible in the oil spill BP and the federal government should take full responsibility for what’s happening there. [Talking Points Memo, 6/10/10]
Tom Donohue, President of the Chamber of Commerce, It is generally not the practice of this country to change the laws after the game. . . Everybody is going to contribute to this clean up. We are all going to have to do it. We are going to have to get the money from the government and from the companies and we will figure out a way to do that. [ABC News, May 28, 2010]
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Comments (26)
Showing 1-26 of 26
"I've sent questions on the subject to the Griffin and Crawford campaigns." lol
MaxB, you know that one of the clauses on the Repuke campaign registration form requires that all correspondence from the Ark Times or MaxB to be instantly ashcanned.
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Duh, the Republicans/BP/Wall Street are the same character (with a few token Democrats thrown in). The goons figured out some time ago that it's cheaper/easier to change the laws so that nothing they do is ultimately against the law...'cause politicians are cheaper than real regulations.
Who received the most campaign contributions during the 2008 election from BP?
OBAMA
And What the Hell, does that mean they shouldn't pay to clean it up? How much of your money are you willing to pay.
The industry needs to come with a fund that covers this since they have proven that accidents do happen-Santa Barbara, Alaska, and now the Gulf. And it doesn't matter the frequency. This is the damage from 1 in 3400 drill rigs and off-shore operations in an area where hurricanes hit on a routine basis. If increasing the liability limit forces some smaller guys out of business, then the fund approach would spread the risk around. (The small company issue is in the article in the Democrat this morning). If you doubt that this isn't a fair approach, then go to any choke-and-puke in the counties in the Fayetteville Shale area and look at all of the different companies involved in dry land exploration. Each part of the process is so specialized that there will always be multiple companies sharing responsibility (or ducking it) and for off-shore drilling, a goodly number are foreign-owned.
There is obviously a lot of money to be made for the management when things go good but why reward them when they screw up. Who do they think they are-Wall Street?
Exposing the Obama administration of recieiving more BP funds than most is just a sure fire way to put the press to sleep on this issue. Can't expose a scandal if a big Democrat is involved. And we all know its just the whasckally old Republicans that are in bed with Big Oil, no Democrat would ever stoop to that.
Bottom line is we need to get the leak stopped at all costs, then clean it up, then put the screws to BP and executives to pay for it, then put in measures to insure this never happens again, then put these creeps and any politician that is really in bed with them in JAIL!, But of course if it ends up being democrats that are in bed with them, that will never happen.
But of course if it ends up being democrats that are in bed with them, that will never happen.
Posted by ActMax
Because so many republicans (please name one?) have suffered for their backing of big oil?
Obama is in a compelling position of allowing drilling to begin once again(lefties unhappy), which will weaken critique from the righties. Most folks understand that the rules on drilling have slanted towards drillers for years, accelerating during the Bush, Cheney energy meeting years. Obama's fault was mostly allowing biz as usual!
Will this blowout to Obama be the same as 911 to Bush? Time will tell, yet these events are much more about what lead-up to the event and the far more immediate issue are folks in the region, recovering over time.
Well for one thing, there hasn't been a major oil crises (accident) in quite a while until now. I am all for responsible drilling, but this was not responsible drilling, this was letting a bunch of idiots run the asylum. This should have never happened if responsible, technical safe guards and measures were followed, this is BP gross negligence. They should be held accountable, but we need to stop the leak first and clean up the mess, then play the blame game.
BP political contributions
2010
Total Spent - $173,781
Contributions to Federal Candidates - $75,550 (42% to Democrats, 58% to Republicans)
2008
Total Spent - $619,255
Contributions to Federal Candidates - $198,500 (41% to Democrats, 59% to Republicans)
2006
Total Spent - $601,696
Contributions to Federal Candidates - $219,500 (34% to Democrats, 65% to Republicans
Now you see why the republicans want tax payer support for BP.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title…
Liberal agenda, gay agenda, socialist agenda ... Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Have a point! Another loser appears on the scene - a Republicant concerned about "everyday folks?" Bbwaaahahahahahahahahaha!
Couldn't be better nailed it.
We first must look in our own backyard. Unlike the very visible Gulf spill, Ark's environmental catastrophe is slowly building underground away from the eyes of TV.
It's not very sensational when a few water wells are poisoned at one time and media folks must have a sensation to drive ratings which please investors.
Media have few, if any, resources for exploring how extensive pollution from Fayetteville Shale drilling has become. The Corporate Party of Arkansas has given gas drillers carte blanche to do as they will. How limited is their liability? Very limited.
Our bought and paid for lege has taken care of that.
Nothing to see here but lots to taste and bath in.
.
Same ole typical libs, blame every crises on Republicans, even when they aren't in power, Katrina, oil spills on and on, its always a Republicans fault. Too bad Ronald Reagan isn't still alive you could blame it on him.
Last I checked Obama was the president, and he is a democrat. Last I checked its been months since the oil leak which has now escalated into a full blown crises, yet nothing is fixed. And you Dems continue to sit on your bums and do nothing but blame someone else. But I guess its still Bush's fault right? Cause that is the last Republican you can blame. No wonder this country is in trouble, with this ostrich put your head in the sand and blame every crises on people you hate, even if they have nothing to do with it line of thinking.
If FDR were still alive, he would be 100% ashamed at what happened to this democratic party and probably would want nothing to do with it.
Don't get me wrong, not that I think Republicans are any better, they are both two sides of the same coin, but at least I don't blame everything that happens from slipping on a banana peel, to hurricanes on a political party like you bed wetting hyper libs do.
"BP hires company to handle oil spill claims whose goal is "reducing payouts" for clients"
Publicly, BP has said it intends to be generous in compensating those affected by the Gulf oil spill: CEO Tony Hayward has pledged to pay all "legitimate" claims resulting from the disaster, even offering to waive the $75 million cap on liability for economic damages.
But to handle claims from the spill, BP has hired a risk-management company who advertises that a main benefit of its services is "reducing our clients' loss dollar pay-outs" -- a goal Gulf advocates say is in direct contradiction to Washington and BP's promises to fully compensate coastal residents.
ESIS Inc. -- part of the Swiss-based global insurance giant the ACE Group -- is a risk-management firm whose mission is to "impact our clients' business and reduce their total cost."
http://www.southernstudies.org/2010/06/com…
One thing we've learned ActMax is that Republics are responsible for nothing.
Drill baby, drill!
.
Why don't we actually DO SOMETHING first like, FIX THE PROBLEM, clean up the oil, then you libs can go back to worrying about government hand outs, more welfare programs and how much BP is going to pony up.
I guess you don't expect the Obama administration to do anything ugh? Cause its not their problem, its the republicans? Hope words like "change....hope....yes we can" can clean up that oil, but for some reason, I'm kinda betting it ain't gonna help. But it surely does sound good dun it, hardy hee hoo hoo.
Well ActMax just grab you a bag of Q-tips and head on down to the Gulf. Swab the birdies and use all your excess hot to blow um dry. It would impress much more than your standard Republican detribe.
Good lord...same ole strangfredbilly 'lib' crap. Sure, Obama/the Dems are not innocent concerning the spill/the wars/Wall Street; BUT the mad rush to deregulate everything/suck oil's you-know-what was lead by and mostly fueled by the Republicans, especially under Monkeyboy/Cheney.
And still the same ole 'there's no difference' labeling of the Obama Presidency. I expect that excuse from the folks who gave us Dubya/went after Clinton for a blow job and drove our economy into the ditch. (Dubya could've been caught naked with a kindergarten class and they'd still argue that it was Clinton's fault and/or that because we're at war we shouldn't question the Commander-in-Chief--unless he's a Democrat.) But it mystifies me how any lefty can think that there is no difference between the less-than-two-years that Obama's been in charge and the eight years before him. Everybody lies/steals so nobody's guilty of lying/stealing is just the Republican way of trying to spread eight years of Monkeyboy crap around so the stink might lessen.
I have no problem blaming Obama for what crap he's brought us; but deregulation/runaway oil companies and the Wall Street collapse belong with Dubya/his enablers.
I don’t care, at this point, one whit about Democrat vs. Republican partisan quibbling about blame over the Deepwater Horizon accident and spill.
I want BP to stop their leak, clean-up the spill and make amends to the millions whose vocations and avocations revolve around the Gulf of Mexico. I want our government to investigate and find what problems and lack of safety precautions contributed to the accident and take steps to regulate current and future exploration efforts to prevent this from happening. I want our government to ensure the oil companies stand-up and take responsibility to conduct a effective clean-up physically and fiscally. I want our government to stop sounding like a party to a cover-up, an accessory to BP efforts to keep the clean-up and leak control effort out of public scrutiny.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/us/10acc…
Efforts to Limit the Flow of Spill News
The Bush Administration was very wrong to let solely political appointments regardless of competency and an over–reaching ideological thirst for no regulations (“obstructions”) to foment an almost total disregard for planning, regulations, safety concerns and ecological dangers in federal administrative agencies, services and commissions.
The Obama Administration was very wrong in not immediately cleaning out the political appointees in these agencies, services and commissions. Allowing business as usual with free waivers, no regard or merely ‘lip service’ for regulations and continuing disregarding of planning, safety and ecological concerns to continue in as heinous as the Bush/Cheney Administration's in starting this and fomenting the climate of disdain by both the oil industry and regulators.
This was and is a serious on-going fault of the Obama Administration. Bipartisanship is nice for new legislation, but they are forgetting that the Executive Branch is tasked with enforcing the laws and regulations of the United States.
U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 3 “. . . ; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed . . .”
President Obama, Sec’y Ken Salazar, Dir. Elizabeth Birnbaum and COS Rahm Emanuel did not take sufficient care that the laws and regulations were faithfully executed and they will pay a horrendous price for that mistake. One, which coupled with the public anger at the price of cleaning up two wars, the largest financial disaster since 1929 and other failures of enforcement through attempts at legislative bipartisanship may flounder any hope of a second presidential term.
Those remaining in the Administration need to step-up, clean house immediately and make BP, regardless of publicity, openly and publicly stop the leak and cless-up all their mess.
I started writing this about three hours ago. Sorry for the delay, but I want to make a reasoned and documented comment.
What Z said!! I'm gone for a while and we have been infested by a new, noxious troll - Sheesh...
Curious that I don't see any response from Joyce. Since Rick & Tim (& even Chad) have weighed in, wouldn't it be good "journalism" to get Joyce on the record?
Or was that part of the DCCC memo: don't ask her the tough questions?
Good post dottholiday. As for you others, I realize you don't expect your Obama administration to actually DO anything other that utter that terrific BS you love to hear so much like "hope.......change" its only when the Republicans are in power that you scream at the roof tops for something to be done. Its OK for a dem administration to do nothing as long as they continue to talk good and promise the world, while actually delivering squat buttkuss. 'Cause they "mean well" right? And that's all that matters.
COSTS and SAVE OUR DIVIDENDS
We are starting to hear a lot of bleating about dividends paid to United Kingdom investors and spinning to intimate that all these dividends go to poor pensioners in Shropshire, rural Lancaster and Yorkshire who invested their savings into BP.
http://www.bp.com/extendedsectiongenericar…
Seven hundred and seventy-seven shareholders have over a million shares (at market $33,770,000) of BP. They own 94.83% of ordinary shares. Of that, JP Morgan Chase holds 27.74% of the total ordinary issued stock shares $166,741,978,020. Their dividend in a few days will be about $360,439,744 (10.67 pence per share or about 8 cents).
Perhaps some of that $360 million is dividends for people with retirement investments, but so were a lot of U.S. workers and retirees with 401K’s etc. when the subprime loans went pop. I didn’t cry nor ask that my retirement funds be untouched or that I was exempt from the bailout because my pension funds investments took a hit.
If the Deepwater Horizon had simply sank and the blow-out preventer worked the investor would have swallowed the loss without even knowing about it, in many cases. That the blow-out preventers didn’t is BP and BP’s investors liability. TAANSTAFL, there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch . . . or there shouldn’t be.
The U.S. goverment should tell BP that it would be a wise move to hold on to the June and perhaps September dividends to ensure cash to pay for the clean-ups and amends. They could add that should BP fail to pay for their accident that for at least the next two to three years, BP would face sanctions and penal regulatory scrutiny in all U.S. drilling operations.
It would also be worth mentioning that should BP attempt to avoid their responsibilities that the U.S., like a landlord, could just seize, hold and have U.S. firms operate B.P.'s current leases unde contract to the U.S. government until profits from those leases repaid the costs of unpaid or unfulfilled clean-ups and amends.
Obama's 911? Well, Obama has kept us safe from oil spills for over 50 days now. Is BP a Yorkshire Terrorist?
There are legal moves that can include taking away BP's ability to bid on any new government contracts and can cancel existing contracts. BP does a bundle with DoD for the military (the number I heard was $2 trillion). They can lose their off-shore leases and any physical equipment. LA residents have already sued to be sure they were in line. If BP wins on a smooth operation, than they lose when the blow it. They have a record of putting money over safety and there are at least 3 leaked reports to their Board saying that they were in a bad position putting profits ahead of safety. They have a record of 100s of violations and the next in line is Exxon with 9. It sounds like you may want to unload BA holdings you have at a loss rather than wait for a chance that the company will go under. We can not let them get by without paying the bill.
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