printRep. Joe Barton is being raked him over the coals by the Media-Congressional complex, his Republican colleagues included, for telling the truth: Big “O” muscled PB into handing over private property without due process—in contravention of “No person shall be … deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,” and all that stuff.
Not only is this unconstitutional; it is also immoral. It further entrenches the shakedown ethos, and the perception that private property works and breathes at the pleasure of the politicos. This is a slush fund, a piece of which everyone along the Gulf will be clamoring for, presumably without the hassles of proving they have been harmed by the spill.
None of what I’ve said will strike those of you who respect private property and due process, including the neglected, necessary, legal imperative of mens rea, as particularly original.
The real newsworthy point to take away from this is how uncommitted Republicans are to these bedrock principles.
This is a replay of the Jim Bunning brouhaha and what the Wall Street Journal called his finest hour. For attempting to abide by the quaint principle of pay-as-you-go—a position not even the crooked Chris Matthews could condemn in its entirety—Bunning was treated like a leper (or an Afrikaner farmer) by the entire spectrum of idiots.
UPDATE I (June 19): ET TU, BACHMANN? Where is this Michele Bachmann? “Neutered” is the right word, via The Right Scoop.
UPDATE II: O’REILLY & O’BAMA SITTING IN A TREE… Bill O’Reilly is consistent here. Never before has he deferred to the limits the constitutional scheme imposes on central power, and he does not now break with that commitment to an overweening central government. (Obama should cut O’Reilly some slack and give him that prestigious interview he craves. O’Reilly is his friend.)
But Bachmann backpedals and disappoints. O’Reilly declares he is okay with Obama bringing down on BP the full force of the federal government; MB, who rightly objected, now meekly agrees. Sort of. She ought to have stuck to her guns in noting the usurpation of power and the violation of due process of which she previously warned.
From “PATRICIDE AND PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT”:
“Prosecutorial power to bring charges against a person is an awesome power, stress Paul Craig Roberts and Lawrence M. Stratton in The Tyranny of Good Intentions. Backing him, the prosecutor has the might of the state, and must never ‘override the rights of the defendant in order to gain a conviction.’
Prosecutorial duties are dual. While acting as the plaintiff, the prosecutor must also take pains to protect the defendant’s rights.”
O’Reilly is like a Benthamite bureaucrat; he’s no truth seeker.
Since the GOP went out of business, Mark Levin has begun to speak truth to power (and phony populism). VIA The Right Scoop:
UPDATE III (June 20): So you still think the “GOP, RIP” can be reformed?
CNN:
Rep. Jo Bonner called on fellow Republican Rep. Joe Barton to step down as ranking member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on Friday following the Texas Republican’s controversial statements to BP chairman Tony Hayward on Thursday.
“Earlier this morning, Rep. Barton called me to offer his personal apologies for any harm that his comments might have caused,” said Bonner, whose district covers much of Alabama’s coastline.
“It takes a big person to admit they were wrong and I appreciated Joe’s call,” Bonner continued. “However, as I told him, I believe the damage of his comments are beyond repair and, as such, I am today calling on Joe to do the right thing for our conference and immediately step aside as Ranking Member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.”
“Joe’s comments were stupid and extremely insensitive to the hundreds of thousands of people who live along the Gulf Coast,” Bonner added.
The Republicans are lame players. Joe Barton called it like it was and in doing so scared the bejeebers out of the Republican brain trust. They are so afraid of upsetting “moderates” and falling on the wrong side of the liberal media they forget about the “non moderate” Americans out there who actually care more about the country than they do about the opinion of the Democrat party or their lickspittle lackeys in the media. (Lickspittle lackeys. I stole that from Mercer a long time ago and try to use it from time to time. I would claim it as my own but she would probably blow my cover.)
Part of the micro-nuance between the two parties:
marginally more honest believers in big government socialism vs. hypocrites who on rare occasions will emit healthier rhetoric but who also deliver big government socialism. Only one item is on the (statist) menu but you can choose between mustard and ketchup!
Congressman Barton is just another neocon Republican. I am very disappointed but not surprised. It is fitting that the Republican party is run by a coward because it sure is full of them.
I watched the O’Reilly segment with Barbara Bachman and I was literally shouting at the TV. Apparently Mr. O’Reilly is willing to waive due process in this case. I guess there must be some fine print in the Constitution I missed about big oil companies being deprived of due process!
I watched the O’Reilly interview with Laura Ingraham Friday night. I can’t stand to watch him because he is so arrogant and stupid. For some reason I was surprised when I heard him say it was ok for the Obama administration to go after BP with the full force of the Federal Government. Of course, I should not have been surprised at all. The man is a complete ass and a phony.
Napolitano now has a Freedom Watch show on FOX Business and went over the BP Confiscation with Glenn Beck. BP may have tort liabilities but that is different than the President deciding on an ad hoc damage award by himself. I have to say that Levin’s rant is hard on the ears.
BP is not a sympathetic victim but neither were the Scottsboro boys 80 years ago. When one stands up for rights vs. government, it must be for the non-appealing victims of government as well as the appealing ones.
As a kid in school, I read the history of 1920-1945 in Central and Western Europe and poor as the schoolbooks were and only being about ten years old, I remember thinking ‘How could anyone believe in phony money, propaganda of hate and stupid politics like that?’ Brown shirts used to stand out in front of a Jew’s store and discourage customers, now the O’Reilly’s spout the same message from behind a desk. Self Righteousness pushed to hate. Nothing has changed except the technology. When my brother told me that Europe was totally socialistic and we needed to forget it and concentrate on keeping our country a bastion of freedom; I told him he needed to go back to school; because, that’s only partly true. I later realized after he calmed down that he is in school, not libertarian school, but O’Reilly is his schoolmaster; closet socialist trainee.