The opening line of the statement from the Republican House leadership taking Rep Joe Barton (R-TX) to the woodshed (my emphasis): “The oil spill in the Gulf is this nation’s largest natural disaster and stopping the leak and cleaning up the region is our top priority.”

Maybe they mean it’s been a disaster to nature? Or that it happened in nature? Or that man is natural and therefore his disasters are natural, too?

David Kurtz

David Kurtz is Managing Editor and Washington Bureau Chief of Talking Points Memo where he oversees the news operations of TPM and its sister sites.