Obama spill message blitz continues ahead of lawmakers’ return

The White House will use Monday to emphasize its response to the BP
oil spill a day before Congress
begins a new round of hearings and other events on the disaster
that could dilute the administration’s messaging and include fresh GOP
attacks.

President Barack Obama will huddle with his Cabinet to discuss
the Gulf of Mexico crisis late Monday morning, and the group will get a
briefing from Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the top federal official in
the response effort.

Also, Allen is slated to hold a joint
briefing with White House press secretary Robert Gibbs Monday morning.
Then, in the early afternoon, White House energy and climate adviser
Carol Browner will host an online briefing about administration efforts
to tackle what has become the worst spill in U.S. history.

The events come as BP has begun reporting some success in its latest effort to slow the oil gusher from its blown-out well a mile below the surface.

The containment dome that began funneling oil to the surface for collection last week captured an estimated 10,500 barrels on Saturday, the company said.

The funneling system is an interim step while the company digs relief wells to end the flow that are slated to be done in August.

But Allen, who made the rounds on the Sunday talk shows, warns that the relief wells are not the end of the story. “Even after that there will be oil out there for months to come. This will be well into the fall,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”