GOP Gives Joe Barton a Free Pass
In today’s Republican Party, you can make politically disastrous statements, blatantly shill for Big Oil, and be an undisguised theocratic climate change denier — and you’ll still be welcome to lead the Energy and Commerce Committee.
The Republican Party has given Joe Barton a free pass.
House Republicans who condemned Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) and threatened to yank his position atop the Energy and Commerce Committee have backed off and will let Barton remain the party’s top lawmaker on the panel.
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), who rebuked Barton for his BP apology last week, told the House Republican Conference Wednesday morning in a closed door meeting that it’s time to move on.
“Joe has done the right thing by apologizing — it’s time to move on,” Boehner told his Republican colleagues, according to multiple sources in the room.
And Barton, of course, immediately gloated about it.
Once news broke that Barton was safe, he posted this POLITICO story in his Twitter feed, then followed up on Twitter by linking to another story with the headline “Joe Barton was right.”