After his overreach with apologizing to Tony Hayward before a House Energy panel, apparently Smokey Joe Barton stepped on the Repubican messaging machine badly enough that even Marsha Blackburn throws him under the bus on John King's show, claiming that Joe Barton doesn't speak for the Republican leadership or speak for her.
However she refused to do the same for her colleague Michele Bachmann who along with Haley Barbour and other Republicans, were all attacking President Obama for having BP set up the escrow account to pay claims rather than wait for BP or the courts to take care of it.
Dibgy has more on how Joe Barton did not just come out of right field with his statements at the hearing and even though he went to far with apologizing to Tony Hayward, attacking the escrow account as a "shakedown" was just more dog-whistle politics as usual from the GOP and straight from their talking points of the day.
Marsha Blackburn would like for us to believe otherwise. Sorry Marsha, not buying it.
Talking Points Of Many Colors:
Joe Barton's infamous apology speech to BP this morning didn't come out of the blue any more than Bachman's or Limbaugh's. Joan Walsh reports that this was an official talking point...
There is, of course, another dimension to this language and you'd better believe they know it...
Take a look at the Amazon listings with similar themes about black politicians. They all use words like "hustler" "pimp" "scammer" "shakedown artist." Now you can add the shorthand term "ACORN" to the mix...
There are dogwhistle politics involved in this on a number of levels. But when it comes to Obama, you can be sure that the Republicans will sneak race in there somehow. It's a reflex.
