Civics 101: Congressional Bribery-- Joe Barton, Of Course... But It Goes Way Beyond Him

Long before the America-haters at the Texas Board of Edumacation decided to expunge Thomas Jefferson and Dolores Huerta from textbooks, conservatives figured out how to save money for the wealthy and continue to dumb down America at the same time-- eliminate civics classes. But back when I was a kid and there were civics classes, they weren't nearly as valuable as Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, or... Stephen Colbert. We never got anything this good in civics:

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Unfortunately, not every American student is savvy enough to watch Colbert for their civics lesson. And what I remember about civics classes in school is that they were very bland and non-controversial-- except when Ms Hobberman went for a smoke and let me take over the class, being pretty stupid but smart enough to know I knew more about the topic than she did. For example, we were always taught that power accrued to members of Congress based on the seniority system. The longer they managed to get reelected and stay alive, the more institutional power they could wield, in terms of chairmanships, leadership roles, influence, etc. And we did seem to wind up with lots of non-idealistic, elderly conservatives in powerful positions. What they didn't go into in civics class was that even more important than graceful aging was the ability of members to collect large sums of money from special interests and spread it around among their colleagues.

That story is exploding this week because Joe Barton, who has taken more in legalistic bribes from Big Oil than any House member in history-- and spreads it around, wide and far, through his sleazy Texas Freedom Fund-- goofed up in explicitly stating Republican Party policies towards Big Business in general (and Big Oil specifically) when he had the temerity to apologize to BP for them being forced to clean up the catastrophic mess they have made-- through their own selfish and dunderheaded decisions-- in the Gulf.

Of course, Joe Barton may have let the cat out of the bag but he's hardly the only congressional leader acting as a bagman for a powerful special interest. How do you think sleazy characters like Rahm Emanuel ((Wall Street), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (sugar + the anti-Cuba lobby), John Boehner (tobacco), Eric Cantor (Wall Street) and Steny Hoyer (everything under the sun) got into positions of power? It wasn't seniority in any of those cases, although it was at least a factor for Hoyer. These people did exactly what a congressional crook Jerry Lewis did to buy the chairmanship of the ultra-lucrative House Appropriations Committee-- he acted as a bagman for defense contactors, spread the dough around generously among his colleagues, repaid the contractors with eye-popping earmarks worth hundreds of times more than the bribes they paid him. That's the bipartisan reality of our political system. Are the Republicans worse? Absolutely. Are there Democrats equally as bad? Absolutely. Emanuel should be in prison, not the White House. Wasserman Schultz, the female Emanuel, shouldn't be on a fast track to the Speakship; she should be sitting on a backbench learning how to behave within the bounds of basic ethics.

Tuesday the NY Times touched on the systemic problem by whining about the blatant corruption of Boehner and Barton while missing the overarching point about the need for drastic congressional reform-- although the idea of Congress reforming itself is patently absurd.

House Republicans had their chance to do the right thing and remove Joe Barton as the ranking Republican on the energy committee. Instead, they applauded him. Mr. Barton, you will recall, apologized to BP-- saying it was a victim of a “shakedown”-- after President Obama pressed the company to ante up a $20 billion compensation fund for all the people who have lost their jobs and businesses because of the oil spill.

After Mr. Barton tried apologizing again before his party’s private caucus, John Boehner, the Republican leader, said “the issue is closed.” Mr. Boehner showed his clear loyalties-- protecting party hacks and the oil industry-- when he decided that Mr. Barton should keep his central role in the Republican Party’s energy policy.

Mr. Boehner cited Mr. Barton’s “poor choice of words,” as if it were an oratorical gaffe and not a glimpse at deeper outrage that government dared to call Big Oil to account. Mr. Barton of Texas spoke a day after the Republican Study Committee caucus of House conservatives denounced Mr. Obama for applying “Chicago-style shakedown politics” against poor, defenseless BP.

Representative Jo Bonner, a Republican of Alabama whose Gulf Coast constituents are incensed, said it best last week when he called for Mr. Barton to lose his ranking position on the energy panel: “I believe the damage of his comments are beyond repair.” After the party caucus ended with a forgiving round of applause, Mr. Barton’s Twitter feed proclaimed: “Joe Barton Was Right.” But wait, that message was soon deleted; it was a mistake, said the latest apology from Mr. Barton’s office.

Reporting yesterday in the Washington Post Greg Sargent went a bit further along the road, referencing the dustup on Joe Scarborough's morning TV show with GOP ace corporate hack Eric Cantor about how it is possible that Barton is very safely ensconced on the Energy Committee, even if not quite as safely ensconced as the Republican policies he enforces and even embodies on that committee. Sargent has been writing about the deeper problem for years so it's hard to understand why he isn't connecting the dots on this one.

Cantor put up a good fight, repeatedly claiming that Joe Barton is "not the issue," reiterating the Republican line that the real issue that matters is stopping the spill. When Cantor compared Barton's BP apology to gaffes issued by Joe Biden, Scarborough repeatedly pushed back hard, pointing out that Barton's apology came from prepared remarks.

And Scarborough wondered aloud in a mystified tone why Republicans weren't axing Barton:

"This hurts the Republican Party. This hurts the Republican brand. Joe Barton is the most powerful Republican on the Hill when it comes to energy policy, and that shows his mindset. Does it not?"
The question is, Why haven't Republicans removed him? As best as I can determine, Republicans believe there's no political percentage in doing so because Dems will continue attacking them as stooges for Big Oil no matter what they do. Republicans don't appear to think the Barton attack is as effective as, say, attacking them for taking Big Oil's campaign contributions. They think attacks featuring the unknown Barton will sound like so much Beltway white noise.

Republicans appear to think that any discussion of oil has a downside for Dems, because it allows Republicans to keep pointing out that Obama has failed to stop the spill. But judging by the pressure on Cantor, Scarborough, for one, appears worried that Barton is damaging to the GOP.

UPDATE, 12:31 p.m.: DNC spokesman Hari Sevugan responds:

We don't say this often, but Eric Cantor's right-- Joe Barton's not the issue. The issue is a broader Republican culture of not just apologizing to the oil industry, but defending them and their other corporate benefactors at every turn and at the expense of middle class families and small businesses. They proved that in their opposition to the President holding BP to account and in their opposition to the President's call for a new energy policy that ensures we are never again in a position where we are solely reliant on oil and oil companies.

And just as Republicans showed their allegiance in taking the side of oil companies in the wake of the BP disaster, they proved it taking the side of the insurance companies in the health reform debate and big Wall St banks in the financial reform debate. So, Eric Cantor is right-- Joe Barton's not the illness, he's a symptom.

Yes, he is a symptom, but a symptom of a problem far greater than the one Hari Sevugan would ever acknowledge, unless he wanted to lose his job.

By the war, for those wondering, yesterdays expose about who Barton has been funneling Big Oil money too, was just for this year. In 2006, when Barton was directing a gusher of Big Oil cash towards Republicans, among the biggest recipients were patsies for Big Oil like

Michele Bachmann (R-MN)- $10,000
Charlie Bass (R-NH)- $5,000
Brian Bilbray (R-CA)- $12,000
John Campbell (R-CA)- $2,500
Charlie Dent (R-PA)- $5,000
Virginia Foxx (R-NC)- $5,000
Mean Jean Schmidt (R-OH)- $5,000

Barton' Texas Freedom Fund laundered almost $600,000 in Big Oil money into the campaigns of several dozen Republicans. You think they're going to want him off the committee? He's the candyman. Overall, Big Oil has funneled millions of dollars into Republican campaigns surreptitiously. When someone sees a donation to their congressman from the Texas Freedom Fund, there's no reason for them to know that their congressman is selling his or her ass to the Big Oil interests, regardless of how harmful those interests are to ordinary Americans and his own constituents.

Bethlehem Mayor, a Democratic congressional candidate, John Callahan, changed that in a big way in his Pennsylvania district yesterday. He's running against a pious corporate whore, slippery ole Charlie Dent, whose taken $113,047 from Oil and Gas Special Interests even before it was discovered that Joe Barton had slipped him another $10,500 from Big Oil surreptitiously through the Texas Freedom Fund. Callahan challenged Dent to join him in signing a letter that calls on all federal elected officials, regardless of party affiliation, to donate campaign contributions from BP to charities that will help with Gulf Coast recovery efforts. Demonstrating his desire to put people above politics, Callahan today signed and delivered to Dent's office a copy of the letter which in part stated:

We call on federal elected officials at all levels, both Democrats and Republicans, to donate to charity any BP contribution used to win the election in 2008 and to reject or donate BP contributions intended for this year's election in order to demonstrate a commitment to put the interests of workers and their families ahead of the interests of BP.

This is especially interesting because when Callahan first suggested that Dent divest himself of the Texas Freedom Fund cash, Dent's response was “When John sends out a release telling President Obama and Steny Hoyer to give their BP cash to a Gulf charity, then he'll be doing something other than spouting talking points… If John Callahan wants to send a bipartisan letter to President Obama regarding giving his campaign contributions to charity, he knows how to reach us.”

OK, he did, but Dent is still refusing to co-sign the letter or to return his BP donations or even the sneaky money he got from Barton! Bill Hedrick took a similar approach in the Riverside/Orange County district where he's challenging the oily incumbent, Ken Calvert. Calvert has also taken large sums of money from the so-called Texas Freedom Fund-- $4,000 this year alone (as well as another $16,725 is direct payments from Big Oil executives and lobbyists this year). He's circulating petition in the district asking Calvert to donate the dirty money to a charity to to assist small businesse and communities damaged by the oil spill. “Ken Calvert is an oil industry favorite," said Bill. He has received more money from the oil and gas industries than any other current member of Congress in California. He’s the Joe Barton of California! He's been a champion for Big Oil in Congress, and as a result of his policies of less oversight and less accountability, we've got a mess. When I was a first grade teacher, I always told my students ‘If you make a mess, you clean it up.’ Ken Calvert should do his small part to help clean it up. Calvert should take his oily money, do the right thing and return it to the people in the Gulf Coast that have been hurt by his loyalty to Big Oil.”