They’re going to need them. On Sunday, White House Chief of
Staff Rahm Emanuel said on ABC's “This Week” that the administration “forced”
BP to set up the fund and to intensify its efforts to contain the spill.
Emanuel also portrayed Republicans as being sympathetic to
BP, saying that a House Republican's controversial apology to the oil giant is
emblematic of the party's views.
Emanuel’s statements come after rumors that he was burned
out and expected to quit this year after growing tired of the “idealism” of
Obama's inner circle.
Washington insiders said Emanuel, 50, would leave within
eight months in frustration over what he called an unwillingness to "bang
heads together" to get policy pushed through.
Emanuel enjoys a good working relationship with the
president but they were believed to have reached an understanding that
differences over style mean he will serve only half the full four-year term.
Meanwhile, Rep. Joe Barton of Texas on Thursday accused the
administration of extortion after it secured a $20 billion compensation fund
from BP for victims of the oil spill, calling the move a “shakedown.”
The lawmaker later apologized, but not before Democratic
leaders pounced on the conservative Texan — and the Republican Party in general
— as beholden to oil companies at the expense of the environment.
“That's not a political gaffe, those are prepared remarks,”
Emanuel said on the Sunday broadcast. “They see the aggrieved party here as BP,
not the fishermen.”
While acknowledging that Barton's comments were a “political
gift” to Democrats, Emanuel said that his remarks were “dangerous for the American
people,” because, if Republicans controlled the House, Barton would be chairman
of the chamber's powerful energy committee.
Top Republican leaders, sensing danger, were quick to
distance themselves and the party from Barton, and every Republican lawmaker
who appeared on Sunday's political talk shows denounced Barton’s words.
They also hinted at White House hypocrisy, saying that BP
was a big contributor to Obama's presidential campaign.
With nine investigations of the disaster underway, nearly
every day has brought a new public-relations crisis. On Sunday, BP defended
embattled chief executive Tony Hayward for taking a day off to attend a yacht
race.
The environmentalist organization Greenpeace called
Hayward’s choice to attend the glitzy event as “rubbing salt into the wounds”
of those whose livelihoods had been wrecked by the oil spill.
Hayward has been criticized for being tone-deaf to US
concerns about the worst oil spill in American history.
He's already angered local residents by saying he wanted his
“life back,” after 11 men were killed in the oilrig explosion.
BP executives, including Hayward, have appeared at nearly a
dozen congressional hearings within the past month and faced the launch of
civil and criminal inquiries by the Justice Department.
As the company frantically tries to drill two relief wells
to stop the flow, its hired guns are facing BP's drilling partners in the
high-stakes legal battle over who is to blame for the disaster.
Another key player is Transocean, a former US firm now based
in Switzerland, which leased the rig to BP and ranks as the world's largest
owner of offshore drilling platforms.
Last month the company hired its own lobbyists, including a
former aide to Tom DeLay, the former House majority leader and Texas Republican.
Engineering giant Halliburton of Houston, which was in
charge of cementing the well just before the April 20 explosion, also has hired
its bevy of lobbyists and public relations staff to handle its legal and
congressional inquiries.
To date, BP has spent nearly $20 million on lobbying from
January 2009 through March 2010, ranking as one of Washington's top corporate
lobbying forces.
BP is going to need all the smooth-talking well-connected
lobbyists and PR people it can find. One lobbyist, not working for BP, said:
"Until the leak is plugged, there's not a lot of patience for the
industry."
Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist for watchdog group
Public Citizen, told reporters that BP lobbyists “are clearly bracing and
preparing for policy impacts from this,” adding it was no surprise that the
companies would turn to well-connected Washington insiders for damage control.
“They're well aware that the most influential lobbyists are
those who have Rolodexes of people inside Congress and inside government,”
Holman said.
“These are people who know who's making decisions and how to
appeal to their interests. That's the reason they exist.”
