It's interesting that with all the Republican members of Congress condemning Texas Rep. Joe Barton for his apology to British Petroleum for the U.S. government "shakedown" (haha), there's been only silence from Arizona's laissez-faire fanatic Rep. Jeff Flake, who's never voted once to help the needy but who's voted over 75 times for tax breaks for corporations like BP, which he shakes down to fill his bloated campaign coffers. As Blog for Arizona points out, Jeff Flake is a member of the Republican Study Committee which, even before Joe Barton's comment, also apologized to BP as it called the escrow account "Chicago-style shakedown politics."
That's because extremist Jeff Flake agrees with Barton's lunatic misguided groveling. He's never seen anything government can do right, and he's never seen anything a domestic or foreign corporation can do wrong - even when its gross negligence or willful misconduct (attested to by its own corporate partners) creates an unprecedented disaster with unparalleled suffering, like the one BP's oil spill has caused in the Gulf. Jeff Flake would prefer to keep his fellow long-serving lackeys of the oil industry in charge of the corrupt and incompetent Minerals Management Service. (See the Rolling Stone exposé of Bush and Obama administration misfeasance.)
Rep. Jeff Flake was shrewd enough to make his apology to British Petroleum in private. Until we hear otherwise, we'll assume that this corporate lackey congressman agrees that BP is the real victim in all of this. Check out his record as a Big Oil lackey on energy issues.
Jeff Flake. Out of touch. Out of control. Maybe even out of his mind.
When it comes to foreign corporations like BP, Jeff Flake is one oily ("excessively servile or obsequious") guy.
But this politician's fat-cat-backed career trajectory is running out of gas.
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For an intelligent non-corporate perspective on the issue, far removed from that of the fanatic Flake, check out this blog post, "Oil Spills and Real Change," by our friend Rev. Billy,
last year's Green Party candidate for New York City Mayor.
