This video clip is so outrageous it speaks for itself:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cp_D0oC4ac&feature=player_embeddedamazing…….

In his opening remarks at House Energy and Commerce hearing, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) actually apologized to BP CEO Tony Hayward.

Barton would have us believe that the greatest tragedy of the Gulf oil disaster is not the livelihoods or ecosystems destroyed nor the lives lost, but that BP was subjected to a “shakedown” by President Obama in order to secure a promise that BP would pay back Gulf Coast victims.

“I’m ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday. I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown.”

This shows just how dysfunctional our political system has become due to big money from Big Oil. Rep. Barton is a leading recipient of oil money in congress.