Republican Calls BP Escrow Fund a "Shakedown", Fellow Republicans Freak Out

Rep. Joe Barton stood up for the Constitution in today's Capitol Hill hearing with executives of BP and some of his fellow GOP members are now freaking out:

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) heard an earful from GOP lawmakers upset with Barton's remarks during a series of votes on the floor Thursday afternoon.

Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) described a scene of "yelling" when he told Boehner that he would call for Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) to resign as ranking member of the Energy and Commerce committee.

Miller called on Barton to step down from the top GOP spot on the committee after Barton used his opening remarks at a hearing Thursday morning to apologize to BP CEO Tony Hayward for the way the government had treated the company for its role in the massive, ongoing Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Miller said he was not alone. Reps. Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) and Sue Myrick (R-N.C.) also participated in the heated discussion.

"Oh, they are furious," Miller said in an interview with The Hill, noting that Bonner, the top-ranking Republican on the ethics panel, is "the calmest guy in the legislative body."

I think "shakedown" was an entirely appropriate description of what the White House is doing to BP. Under Federal law the BP is not required to contribute more than $75 million to the clean-up effort. Anything else is voluntary.

However, when your top execs are brought to the White House and confronted by the Attorney General with possible criminal charges, the news that they are suddenly willing to put up $20 billion certainly sounds like a shakedown. The actions by the White House are certainly questionable from a Constitutional standpoint. Who gave them the authority to do any of this?  By what law can they claim this power? (Be sure to see Ben Stein's comments on this.)

These GOP members are probably ticked because the politics of this event seem to demand the demonization of BP, as though there has never been an industrial accident before.  I wish they'd put the same effort into defending the Constitution that they're putting into eating their own.

UPDATE from Mark Knoller at CBS:

Get this. Cong. Joe Barton, R-TX just retracted his apology to BP and further apologized for accusing the WH of a "shakedown" of BP.

Profiles in courage, the whole bunch of them.