so people will be shocked by that. he is a top republican on the hill when it comes to energy. so, no, he s not speaking for himself. this is a political crisis of the first order that is now landed on the lap of john boehner and he doesn t like joe barton. barton ran against boehner. he said these two don t like each other but it s up to the old bulls in the republican party who are usually tone deaf. they protect each other. it s going to be very curious. let me ask you quickly before we get to joe biden. do you think the old bull is going to protect joe barton or will he be out? they know this is going to be a 30-second commercial this fall. this could, in congressional races, turn the bp issue against republicans. if it goes that way, i think they will have to cut him loose. john, do they cut him loose?
earlier today, congressman from texas, listen to this. a congressman from texas apologized to britt petroleum for being shaken down by the white house. he said the white house shakedown, $20 billion. he said, i m sorry that had to happen. whoa! nice to see you rich white guys sticking up for one another, though, isn t it? good for you buddy! is there that. top of the hour. welcome back to morning joe. yep. we have a lot to talk about. the joe barton apology. my gosh. the most powerful republican on capitol hill apologizing to bp. stunning to say the least. and we re going to see what happens. i suspect joe is not going to be in his position long. it doesn t seem possible. with us on the set is mark halperson and joining us is
document calling this a shakedown so it s not as though joe barton is a completely he s not like he s not out there on a limb. this is not a fringe beater. a lot of republicans think that is true and share that sentiment. but, but, but. on far right wing talk radio they are going to hold joe barton up as the hero. let s see how many republicans are stupid enough to follow. good luck, good luck. he sort of apologized. he had a written statement and then after meeting with boehner, went back out and apologized. take a listen. if anythingive said this morning has been misconstrued in an opposite effect, i want to apologize for that misconstrue misconstruction. misconstruction? misconstruing? misconstrue? he apologized! put a sentence together a way that he didn t mean to. people misconstrued his
immediate crisis and what people expect us to see and not take our eye off of that and then get to the accountability and there will be plenty and we re already committing $20 billion and we ll get to it. david, people are having problem with public relations here. across the board. talk about barack obama a month now but now it looks like the problem has been passed on to bp. i have somebody who works for bp out of washington say why wouldn t they just shut up and stop talking. joe barton, yesterday, perhaps the dumb if that is possible, the dumbest of all comments since the leak began. just from a political point of view if you are a republican in washington, you do not why would you want to get in the way of this? if the administration is managing something that is a disaster that is out of control, why insert yourself inside yourself with only the biggest villain in this entire story line? and that s what barton did. the notion that somehow now,
basically maintained the status quo. if you believe in government, you got to govern. those three administrations have given the oil companies whatever they want? that s really correct. i have to say one other thing, though. it s so wonderful to watch this guy with his posh british accent be as skivvy. i love the accent. it s so eldridge. everybody performed badly yesterday. i m serious. was this a good day for the obama administration yesterday. finally a little bit of relief because you have the bp chairman just turning in a horrific performance and then you have joe barton taking all the political bullets. well, i m fascinated by bp s strategy in all of this this. they sent him into the hearing either willfully ignorant or a strategy on get through the hearing by basically saying i can t tell you anything because the investigation is still going