which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow? bp upstaged at its own public relations funeral by the gobp. definition, a political party spewing gas and out of control. congressman joe barton, the gobp, texas. i m ashamed of what happened in the white house yesterday. i think it is the a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what i would characterize as a shakedown, participating in what amounts to a $20 billion slush fund. i apologize. not his last apology of the day. not even tony hayward was stupid enough to agree with that. could we take that as a no in response to my question, sir, that you did not consider this to be a slush fund? i certainly didn t think it was a slush fund. even the gobp had enough. talk about a shakedown. barton forced to retract his apology. if anything i said this morning has been miscontoured in an opposite effect, i want to apologize for that misconstruction. day 59 with doyle
word shakedown. a starting admission by bp. it didn t happen during today s testimony. not much starting admissions it to be had there. a lot of people didn t notice this today. senator charles grassley did. in a bp document he obtained, this document right here, bp seems to state that early on in this disaster they estimated the flow rate. this bp document says, and i quote, an absolute worst case flow rate of 60,000 barrels a day was calculated. it goes on to say that a more likely worst case flow rate is 40,000 barrels. now, what is so stunning about this is not that the government estimate is now almost exactly what this apparently early bp estimate was i mean, that s stunning, but what s really damning is that bp never publicly said that they had an internal estimate of the flow rate. in fact, they repeatedly said they were focused on fixing the leak, not measuring it. for weeks, they publicly stated the lowest possible estimates, first of 1,000 barrels, and then 5,000
this bp document says, and i quote, an absolute worst case flow rate of 60,000 barrels a day was calculated. it goes on to say that a more likely worst case flow rate is 40,000 barrels. now, what is so stunning about this is not that the government estimate is now almost exactly what this apparently early bp estimate was i mean, that s stunning, but what s really damning is that bp never publicly said that they had an internal estimate of the flow rate. in fact, they repeatedly said they were focused on fixing the leak, not measuring it. for weeks, they publicly stated the lowest possible estimates, first of 1,000 barrels, and then 5,000 barrels. we don t know when this internal document was written, but it appears to have been written shortly after independent scientists began to make estimates of the flow rate based on that first video released of the spill back in early may. if early on bp estimated that 60,000 barrels might be pouring out of that well or even 40,000 and
and can we take that as a no in response to my question, sir, that you did not consider this to be a slush fund? i certainly didn t think it was a slush fund. even the gobp had enough. talk about a shakedown. barton forced by leadership to retract his first apology. if anything i said this morning has been misconstrued in an opposite effect, i want to apologize for that misconstrue misconstruction. day 59 with howard fineman, with congressman mike doyle of pennsylvania, with the bp whistleblower who fears there could still be worse to come in other bp wells, ken abbott. the first rule of tea party is you do not talk about tea party. i think the bigger mistake that rand paul did was say i am the tea party victor here. dave weigel on why one of the. you-tiers behind the tea party now tells its candidates hide your tea bags. worsts. this is how we run for office in alabam. hey, you. hey. get away from that. and speaking of aiming high, as south carolina s dem
what happened to mr. abbott. not only was he fired, but your company put out an advertisement to hire someone to replace him on that job. earlier you said all the other bp wells in the gulf of mexico that had been completed are secure and are safe to operate. do you still standby that? i do. do you know the judge said it is not true that the documents were completed when he substantiated his obligations. he s a district judge. he comes in. he does the evaluation. and he substantiated the whistle