Alabama Rep. Jo Bonner (R) becomes the second member of the House to call for Rep. Joe Barton to step down as Ranking Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
As you might expect, Bonner’s got the 1st District which covers the state’s Gulf Coast.
BP CEO Tony Hayward turned out not to be quite the star of yesterday’s congressional hearings. Rep. Barton usurped that role. But it seems like the upshot of recent events will be to push Hayward if not out of his job then at least out of the role of public face for BP in the oil spill crisis. BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg gave an interview to Britain’s Sky TV today that Hayward is going to be replaced as public spokesman/manager for the company’s oil spill response by Bob Dudley, the managing director of the company.
The general switch in emphasis was announced more than a week ago. But there seemed to be a little more edge to the comments today.
“It is clear Tony has made remarks that have upset people,” Mr Svanberg told Sky.
In general, Svanberg’s interview left little question that he thinks Hayward, or at least his public role in the disaster response, has become a liability to the company. And the interviewer Jeff Randall suggested that the most significant part of the interview was Svanberg’s considered lack of strong public backing for Hayward.
Twitter may be good for a lot of things. Using it to announce executions in real time if you’re a state Attorney General probably ain’t one of them.
In the back and forth over whether the strong ‘Volcker Rule’ will be in the final financial reform bill, Russ Feingold — who voted against the whole package — is coming back to center stage as a possible pivotal vote as a counterweight to Massachusetts’ Scott Brown whose vote reformers are relying on to push the bill through.
I’m not sure why a political movement needs its own superhero. But a new Tea Party superhero “microman” (no, I’m not sure either) is being rolled out and backed by Joe the Plumber.
Is Pres. Obama secretly plotting a carbon tax? Robert Reich asks the question.
Theda Skocpol says Obama’s liberal critics on the oil spill need to get a clue.
If we had any question why Republicans were keeping Sharron Angle away from the press, I think we have our answer. With video. Eeesh.