If you want to know why the Republicans are called the “stupid party,” you need to look no further than this story about John Boehner’s distancing himself from Congressman Joe Barton’s remark that, based on no constitutional authority, BP had been “shaken down” by the Obama administration and forced to fork over a $20 billion “slush fund.”

First, please take a look at Barton’s comments:

A relatively mild statement of fact, expressed inoffensively. So naturally, the spineless jellyfish who pass for the “leaders” of the Stupid Party immediately started backpedaling away:

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) broke with a top Republican on Thursday who suggested BP had suffered a “shakedown” by being forced to set up a $20 billion fund to pay out damages.

Asked at his weekly press conference if he disagreed with Barton’s characterization of the deal struck Wednesday at the White House, Boehner quickly responded, “I do.”

“BP agreed to fund the cost of this cleanup from the beginning and I’m glad they’re being held accountable,” Boehner told reporters.

When is the Stupid Party going to wise up and realize that the only way fight Obamaism is by going on the attack, by using the weapons of the left against them — relentlessness, implacable opposition and a ruthless willingness to pick up beer bottles and paving stones and pool cues if it will help win the fight. The left never compromises unless it has to, never apologizes unless it is forced to and never cedes an inch of ground that it is not wrested from it in intellectual combat.

Where also is the conservative media, which ought to be hammering this point home on a daily basis? The modern Democrats are not your father’s lunch-pail Democrat party, but rather an unholy fusion of 1930s gangsters, 1960s Marxists and contemporary victimologists, and right-leaning pundits should be calling them out at every step: this isn’t politics any more, it’s a Cold Civil War. But no…

Before the press conference, Boehner had already signaled his disagreement with Barton’s comments in a television interview.

“They’ve agreed to put this $20 billion dollars in escrow,” Boehner said during an appearance on Fox News. “I don’t know what context Mr. Barton was making that remark, but, I’m glad BP has accepted responsibility for their actions.”

Instead we just back away politely and, like Oliver Twist, ask for another helping of gruel, and take our lumps.


Pathetic.