News Roundup for 6/23/10

Rep. Joe Barton

-Headline of the day-
"'Joe Barton was right,' Joe Barton tweets."

We all remember when Rep. Smokey Joe Barton apologized to BP's CEO for getting all that nasty saltwater in his nice clean oil. That wasn't actually so bad. What really got people was that, in a display of submission, Joe then laid down on his back with his arms and legs in the air and wouldn't get up until Tony Hayward had rubbed his tummy. You've gotta admit, that was pretty embarrassing.

Seeing how that didn't go over very well, Barton later apologized for apologizing. But this morning, he took it back in a tweet that read "Joe Barton was Right," with a link to an article in The American Spectator about what a Great American Joe Barton is. So Barton was basically saying he was sorry for saying he was sorry about being sorry. It's that sort of quick-witted, decisive leadership that makes Smokey Joe Barton the Great American that he is.

But later in the day, Barton deleted the tweet and the link. A statement from Barton's office said an overeager staffer had put it up without thinking and now it was down and done with and could we please shut the fuck up about what a clown Joe Barton is?

In short, Rep. Joe Barton is now sorry for saying he was sorry about being sorry for saying he was sorry. I think that's right... A couple more of these and we're going to have to start using a calculator to keep track of things. I'm counting them off on my fingers right now. Maybe I should be using a Yahtzee score sheet or something.

Anyway, to sum up, Joe Barton is sorry -- again. (Dave Weigel)


-Behold the awesome-
The first thing I said to myself after watching this clip of Rep. Jim McDermott kick Rush Limbaugh's rhetorical ass was -- and I quote -- "Hee! Hee!"

Can I get an amen? (Media Matters)


-Bonus HotD-
"Fox host: Being president is 'just like' my job."

Wow, talk about setting the bar low. I thought "President Sarah Palin" was a scary thought, but Gretchen Carlson -- the woman who seems to believe that Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade aren't circus freaks?

I may not sleep tonight. (Raw Story, with video)