Now Joe Barton is apologizing for his apology to BP, after his fellow Republican leaders distanced themselves from his BP-brown-nosing this morning.
Except he doesn’t actually apologize. He merely retracts the statement and notes regret for using the word “shakedown” and the “impact” his statement had—i.e. he’s not sorry he said it, just sorry that it was blown up in the news for being as asinine as it actually was. Here’s the statement:
I apologize for using the term ‘shakedown’ with regard to yesterday’s actions at the White House in my opening statement this morning, and I retract my apology to BP. As I told my colleagues yesterday and said again this morning, BP should bear the full financial responsibility for the accident on their lease in the Gulf of Mexico. BP should fully compensate those families and businesses that have been hurt by this accident. BP and the federal government need to stop the leak, clean up the damage, and take whatever steps necessary to prevent a similar accident in the future.
I regret the impact that my statement this morning implied that BP should not pay for the consequences of their decisions and actions in this incident.
