Dems unapologetically push Barton comments as campaign issue

Democrats immediately seized on Rep. Joe Barton’s (R-Texas)
apology to BP as a political gaffe of epic proportions. Now, the question is,
can they make voters remember it in November?

In the first 24 hours after the Texas congressman sent jaws
dropping with his defense of the oil giant and accusations of a Obama
administration “shakedown,” Democrats from the White House to the party
campaign committees unleashed a full-scale assault.

{mosads}Vice President Joseph Biden and press secretary Robert Gibbs
condemned the remarks, while top party strategist David Plouffe called for
Barton’s resignation from his senior perch on the House Energy and Commerce
Committee.

At the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), strategists blasted out
fundraising solicitations and searched for vulnerable GOP candidates to hang
Barton’s comments around like a 50-pound weight. The fund-raising e-mail warned
donors that “if the GOP wins back the House, Barton is the guy who could be in
charge of regulating the oil industry.” Officials said the first national
television ad featuring Barton would run on cable stations as soon as this
weekend.

In an election season where Democrats across the country are
playing defense, the Barton comments offered the party a prime opportunity to
press their favorite line of attack against Republicans – that the GOP is a
defender of corporate interests like Wall Street and Big Oil, while Democrats
fight for Mail Street.

“Barton’s comments highlighted a Republican culture of
apologizing for the oil industry that was evident in their belief that holding
BP accountable is a ‘shakedown,’ their defense of limiting liability for oil
companies which cause this kind of devastating damage and their vehement
opposition to the president’s call to ensure we are never put in the position
of being reliant on oil and oil companies ever again,” a spokesman for the DNC,
Hari Sevugan, said. 

“It’s not the end of this,” pledged DCCC chairman Rep. Chris Van Hollen, appearing on ABC’s “Top Line.”

Another Democratic strategist put it simply: “It just
crystallized our argument.”

Yet the party has tried this before, to mixed success.

When Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) yelled “you lie” at President
Barack Obama during his September address to Congress on healthcare, Democrats
pounced, attempting to make Wilson a symbol of Republican obstructionism and
incivility. The effort put Wilson on the national map and gave a modest boost
to his congressional opponent, but it did little to change the political
dynamic around healthcare. (Barton’s heavily Republican seat appears to be even
safer; his Democratic challenger, David Cozad, told The Hill that his campaign
consists of “a camera [and] two or three staffers.”)

Republican leaders have also returned to the Wilson
playbook, forcing an immediate apology from Barton as they did with the South
Carolina lawmaker. In Barton’s case, Republicans took an even firmer stand,
suggesting that his post on the Energy and Commerce Committee could be in
jeopardy.

Democrats have mounted what a strategist characterized as a
“multi-pronged” effort to keep the Barton story alive, despite his abject – if forced
– apology and retraction.

The party has targeted the 114 members of the Republican
Study Committee, the conservative policy arm of the House GOP that also
referred to the $20 billion escrow account the White House demanded from BP as
a “shakedown.” The DCCC sent out a release targeting 18 GOP lawmakers and
congressional candidates, asking them if they “stand with BP or the American
people.” The committee also started a petition to denounce Barton’s apology and
sent a fund-raising pitch to pay for ads on his comments.

The first ad will run as early as this weekend, officials
said. It features Barton’s apology and a narrator’s voice: “Tell Republicans:
Stop apologizing to Big Oil.”

Having decided against trying to defend Barton, Republicans
were left to hope the issue fades away in a news cycle that shifts by the hour,
or that Democrats overreach.

“Democrats can attempt to distract from the facts, but
ultimately the 2010 election will be a referendum on President Obama, the
Pelosi-led Congress and their culture of incompetence that has resulted in the
mismanagement of the federal bureaucracy, the economy, and the ballooning
deficit,” a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, Ken
Spain, said in a statement.

— Shane D’Aprile contributed to this article