GOP Sympathy with BP: Holocaust Rhetoric, Apologies, and More

Matthew Green — June 25, 2010 – 10:40 am | Abusive Holocaust Rhetoric | Congress | Environment | GOP Hypocrisies | Republicans Comments (2) Add a comment

Just days after the catastrophic oil spill began off the Gulf Coast, Glenn Beck took a characteristically offensive stab at the Obama Administration’s attempt to raise the liability cap for BP. On the May 4 broadcast of his radio show, Beck seemed to imply that overreacting to the oil spill could lead to another Holocaust.

As reported by Media Matters:

Beck asked, ‘Is there anything like the rule of law here?’ He then argued that ‘If we don’t stand by the Constitution’ in ‘tough times,’ things will worsen. He asked, ‘Did we go and fight Germany for this? Is that what we fought the Nazis for? Is that why those millions of people died?’ Beck concluded, ‘That’s not America.’

Then, on June 18, Beck further sympathized with BP by comparing the oil spill hearings to something out of the McCarthy era. He continued:

We are in a thugocracy. We are being run by criminals, and we’ve got a little puppet show just to entertain the masses. Why don’t we bring some Christians out and feed them to lions? 

In that same broadcast, Beck referred to the hearings as “Salem witch trials,” and asked, “Why don’t you ask these dumb questions after we’ve stopped the oil leak?”

Beck’s commentary may sound extreme, but it comes at a time when sympathy for BP is publicly echoed by a host of Republicans. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) recently said she believes BP “shouldn’t have to be fleeced” by creating a fund in escrow to aid victims of the spill. She also referred to such reparative aid as “a redistribution-of-wealth-fund.”

Another Republican, Joe Barton (R-TX), infamously apologized to BP, calling the aid fund, “a tragedy in the first proportion.” Rush Limbaugh hailed Barton’s apology as “a home run.” In that same broadcast, Rush Limbaugh announced on his radio show that President Barack Obama taught students “how to use the Constitution to shakedown corporations ... much like he’s doing to BP.” Congressman Steve King (R-IA) also came to Barton’s defense, saying:

I think Joe Barton was spot-on when he called it a ‘shakedown.’ That’s part of this administration’s process.

During the broadcast of FOX’s Hannity that evening, Newt Gingrich furthered the claim by saying that the Obama Administration is “directly engaged in extorting money” from BP. Congressman Tom Price (R-GA) got creative with the same idea. In a statement for the Republican Study Committee, Price said, “the Obama Administration is hard at work exerting its brand of Chicago-style shakedown politics.” 114 Republicans count themselves as members of the RSC, which has been a vocal critic of the fund intended to aid oil spill victims.

Pat Buchanan, too, got on the “shakedown” bandwagon on the June 20 broadcast of the McLaughlin Group. As reported by Media Matters:

 [Buchanan] said that having Attorney General Eric Holder present at the meeting in which the escrow fund was discussed was ‘like having Luca Brasi sitting across saying, ‘I’m going to make you an offer you can’t refuse.’

Additionally, Tom Sowell, a respected conservative political commentator, recently compared Obama’s BP response to Nazi totalitarianism:

 [D]uring the worldwide Great Depression, the German Reichstag passed a law ‘for the relief of the German people.’ That law gave Hitler dictatorial powers that were used for things going far beyond the relief of the German people - indeed, powers that ultimately brought a rain of destruction down on the German people and on others. If the agreement with BP was an isolated event, perhaps we might hope that it would not be a precedent. But there is nothing isolated about it.

Sarah Palin has been promoting Sowell’s column to her supporters.

While all this spin continues to emanate from the GOP and its allies, one Republican candidate even participated in a fundraiser with a BP lobbyist.

All the spin and ignorance from the right wing disregards the cold, hard fact that somewhere between 67 and 127 million gallons of oil have gushed into the Gulf of Mexico since BP’s oilrig exploded on April 20.

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