Obama Drills Down

As I said this morning, the Democrats need to either go on the offense with the Deepwater Horizon disaster now or risk having it blow up in their faces.  Obama wisely did just that this afternoon.

President Barack Obama on Friday angrily decried the "ridiculous spectacle" of oil industry officials pointing fingers of blame for the catastrophic spill in the Gulf of Mexico and pledged to end a "cozy relationship" between the oil industry and federal regulators that he said had extended into his own administration.


Obama said he shared the "anger and frustration" felt by many Americans, and promised he would "not rest or be satisfied" until the leak had been capped, the spill had been cleaned up and gulf residents could return to their livelihoods.

He also acknowledged differing estimates about just how disastrous the damage from the leak could become. He said the administration's response has "always been geared toward the possibility of a catastrophic event."

With millions of gallons of oil fouling the fragile Gulf ecosystem after a drilling rig exploded April 20 and later sank, Obama said: "It's pretty clear that the system failed and it failed badly." Eleven workers were killed in the accident.

Obama slammed BP and other companies responsible for equipment involved in the spill for pointing fingers at each other instead of accepting responsibility.

There's "enough blame to go around and all parties should be willing to accept it," the president said.

This should have been the response 2 weeks ago, but it took NPR and the rest of the media revealing a much higher spill rate -- 70,000 barrels of oil a day now -- to light a fire under the President.

Smartly, the Democrats are now putting pressure on the Republicans when it comes to making sure BP pays for this mess and not the taxpayer.  The Republicans are blocking legislation that allows the government to raise the liability cap on disasters from a meaningless $75 million to a less meaningless $10 billion, led by Alaska's Lisa Murkowski.  The Democrats are coming out with, well, both oil barrels blazing.

Senate Dem leaders reacted angrily yesterday to Murkowski's block. And now they say they're going to push the issue next week, by calling for more votes on it. Harry Reid spokesman Jim Manley emails:

"Senate Democrats, led by Senators Menendez, Lautenberg and Nelson, are going to continue next week to pass common-sense legislation to ensure that BP pays for the full cost of cleanup and that taxpayers in Nevada and across America are protected.

"Inexplicably, Republicans are protecting negligent oil companies like BP and blocking our efforts to prevent a BP bailout. Through their obstruction, Republicans are leaving taxpayers on the hook to pay for BP's negligence."

That's a reference to senators Frank Lautenberg and Bill Nelson. It's unclear how many Republican Senators would oppose this measure if it came to a vote, since they haven't been forced to take a stand on it, thanks to Murkowski's willingness to carry the oil, as it were, by blocking the vote.

But Dems intend to try to force the issue next week, at a time when the evolving disaster's consequences, political and environmental alike, remain murky and unknowable.

It's not murky, it's a huge loser for Republicans and it's getting worse for them daily.  Americans are going to see the footage of destroyed beaches, closed resorts, docked fishing boats and ruined vacation spots and start getting damn angry.  And the Republicans are again on the wrong side.