A Tribe of Lackeys

I find it hard to believe there can be any more reprehensible character in the House of Representatives than John Boehner of Ohio. He's the minority leader, and he's as bitter a partisan Republican as ever you will find. I suppose it's his job, but what a crappy job. (And lest you think I'm sympathetic, wipe that thought out of your head. He loves his job.) While British Petroleum is literally murdering the Gulf of Mexico, Boehner and his GOP colleagues are proposing to limit the company's liability for one of the worst environmental catastrophes in U.S. history.* And in fact, suggesting that the taxpayers should be helping BP pay for this mess.

Scientists are telling us now that earlier estimates about the extent of the spill were way too low. In fact, the actual rate of defilement may be in the neighborhood of 25,000 to 30,000 barrels a day, twice what's been reckoned till now. What we're talking about here is roughly 1.3 million gallons every single day. And we're now in Day 50 of the crisis. Do the math. Some scientists think the rate of defilement may be as much as 2 million gallons a day.The Exxon Valdez spill--11 million gallons--has until now been the benchmark oil spill disaster. It's receded in the rear-view mirror like a mailbox you've passed at 85 mph. The liability for this disaster and the terrible damage it is going to wreak on the Gulf coast and all the people who live and make their livings there is going to "blow the record books up," according to a former chief of the EPA. 


But Boehner and his Republican colleagues, following the lead of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, think the taxpayers should help BP pay for what BP has done to us. Isn't it amazing that these hypocritical bastards are all in favor of socialism when it comes to corporate liability? We haven't heard the last of this. The Republican party is a tribe of lackeys for corporations. And that's all they are. They care about the moneyed class. And that's all they care about. I realize how extreme these statements appear. OK, I'll retract them both if you find me evidence that the GOP is more concerned about the public interest than in their partisan agenda and the interests of the giant global capitalists.

*It's already the worst oil spill in the history of this country and depending on how long the oil continues to gush into the Gulf, it could well end up being one of the worst environmental disasters ever visited upon the entire planet.