Barack Obama came out with his strongest public statements yet regarding the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, venting on the Today Show that he was looking for an "ass to kick" over the spill.
Well, here's a tip for you, Barry, free of charge. In your quest for hides that need a good tanning, start with a good, long look in the mirror.
You are the one who spear-headed an expanded push for offshore drilling just weeks before the Deepwater Horizon blew up in your face. You took in more political contribution dollars from BP than any other candidate in the past 20 years, and you are authorizing more off-shore drilling before the leaking well is even capped.
The Minerals Management Service, a division of the Interior Department responsible for policing offshore drilling, was rife with corruption, back-scratching, cronyism and gift-giving. The Department of the Interior, as you'll recall is a function of the executive branch of government.
These people work for you, Mr. President, and while you're desperate not to let this spill sink your presidency, the buck stops with you. The agency in your administration responsible for preventing this kind of disaster was more incentuous than any hemophiliac European royal family.
It turns out appointing oil company insiders to police themselves is not a good idea, particularly when those people are also responsible for collecting revenue from drilling permits.
Even after your public scolding, BP is refusing to cooperate with scientists investigating the large underwater oil plumes that the petroleum giant won't admit exist. Until BP is held accountable to someone other than bumbling CEO Tony Hayward, all your tough-guy talk is laughable.
You can't say you want to kick BP's ass in public and continue with a business-as-usual approach to offshore drilling.
The American public was dissatisfied with your response to the oil spill, but not because you weren't angry enough, or because you didn't use enough swear words on television.
We are upset because you, the self-proclaimed harbinger of hope and change, have continued folding to corporate interests. You still apparently value the oil dollar more than the health and safety of our environment and the citizens who elected you to power.
It's nothing new. It's just that some of us expected better of you, and we're a little disappointed that the hope and change we were promised still tastes so much like crude oil.
