StopLouBarletta.com

It’s been over a month since Lou Barletta posted a blog on his website, demanding that the US Government drop its criminal probe of BP.  He also called for the end of government oversight of BP as it works to stop the massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.  To date, Barletta has yet to speak further on the matter, either to apologize for his outlandish remarks or to clarify them.  The only reasonable explanation for this is that Mayor Barletta still believes that standing with BP, and against the United States of America, is the right thing to do.  This begs the question, “Why?”

There are those that would say that Barletta’s statement doesn’t really support BP.  Really?  The title of the blog post is, “Gulf Needs Relief, Not Government”.  In the post, Barletta wonders aloud how the US Government could be so “woefully inept” at dealing with this crisis (right before he states that the US Government’s first priority should be dealing with this crisis).  And then Barletta ends the post by calling for an end to the criminal investigation of BP and calls for the US Government to leave it’s “political scheming” at “water’s edge.”  If I’m a BP executive, I’m sitting there going, “YOU TELL THEM, LOU!”

Also, if Barletta wasn’t supporting BP with this post, then what is the point of it, exactly?  Why, if you aren’t siding with BP, would you post something that blasts the US Government for its response to the oil disaster, calls for an end to any criminal investigation of BP, and calls for the government to stay at waters edge, forty miles away from the gushing oil leak?  If someone were NOT defending BP, they would NOT have posted something like that.  Barletta and his cronies can try and spin this post all they want, but I can read what Barletta wrote and I think it’s pretty clear that Barletta is, with this blog post, standing up for BP.

So I go back to my original question, “Why?”  Why would any intelligent politician want to stand up in support of BP, a company that has caused so much harm, ruined so many lives, and wreaked so much havoc?  The simple answer is that Lou Barletta is not intelligent.  And while I will be the last person to stand up in defense of Lou Barletta’s intelligence, I think that Lou Barletta wrote that blog post as a calculated gamble.  Barletta decided to write that post, hope that not too many people saw it (it wasn’t referred to in any press release or linked to on either his Facebook or Twitter accounts), and that he could then use it to get some cash from the oil industry.  He could quietly reach out to them, point them to his blog, and imply that if elected, he would be their guy.  And, if some moron with a StopLouBarletta website stumbled upon it and called him out on it, Barletta ensured that the post was still vague enough that he could try and say it wasn’t what it appeared to be.

So is that why Mayor Barletta wrote that post?  Obviously, I haven’t discussed it with him but it makes enough sense to me that I can’t help but think that the answer is, “Yes.”  I do believe that Lou Barletta is trying to make nice with the oil industry in the hopes that they throw him some support as he seeks to get elected to Congress.  I believe that Lou Barletta is willing to stoop that low.  He’s already accepted money from convicted drug dealers and from an organization that believes women have no place in the work force, so it’s really not a stretch to think that he’d also pander to BP and the oil industry.  Lou Barletta is desperate for cash and he has made it clear that he will take it from anyone, from any organization, no questions asked.  Is that the kind of politician that we should be sending to Congress?

I don’t think so.  And, in two previous elections, the majority of voters have agreed.  When Lou Barletta starts speaking up against the US Government, and in support of BP, it’s clear that he doesn’t want to go to Congress to stand up for any of us.  He wants to go to Congress to stand up for whomever gives him money.  Lou Barletta, in my opinion, is a slimeball and a spineless political hack.  Clearly, Lou Barletta should not be elected to Congress.

-Dan Cheek
www.StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com

One of the reasons I love writing a blog about Mayor Lou Barletta, or “America’s Mayor” as his PR people like to say, is that I never run out of stuff to write about.  I can always count on Mayor Barletta to come along and say and/or do something stupid and provide me with enough material to fill several blog posts.  This past week was no exception.  Once again, “America’s Mayor” has figured out how to continue to embarrass both himself and the Republican Party that he represents.  On June 17th, Barletta posted an article on his website that basically demanded that the US Government leave poor old BP alone and just trust them to fix the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.  Seriously, people, I can’t make this stuff up.  Lou Barletta is now sticking up for BP.

I understand that Lou Barletta is having trouble raising cash for his faltering Congressional campaign.  He has amassed a mountain of debt and his fund raising efforts are on life support, at best.  So I guess it should be no surprise that, apparently, Lou Barletta is now trying to make nice with the oil industry.  Because, hey, who has more money that Big Oil, right?  Barletta’s little rant, which blasts the Federal Government and calls for them to end their criminal investigation probe of BP, sounds as if it were really a BP press release.  But don’t take my word for it, allow me to quote directly from Mayor Barletta’s op-ed…

“This oil spill has exposed serious flaws in our government, just as Hurricane Katrina did in August 2006.

In this case, private industries clearly made serious mistakes. But our government has failed us – and continues to fail us in this area on a daily basis.

It pains me to say that the president failed to lead during this crisis. His response and that of his administration has been too slow, too disorganized, and too scattered. The Obama administration is so concerned about playing the Washington Blame Game that plugging the leaking well seems to be a secondary concern.

BP and other private firms should be held accountable for whatever damages they caused.

But the federal government’s first priority should be stopping the leak and cleaning up the damage. Next, it should determine what went wrong and make sure a similar tragedy never happens again.

There will be time for criminal investigations and federal probes. For now, the Obama administration should keep political scheming at the water’s edge.”

Get that?  Essentially, Lou Barletta is saying that yeah, maybe BP made a little mistake, but it’s really the Federal Government’s response that we should be pissed about.  And, really, why should we even be conducting criminal investigations into the oil leak?  These mean people from the government should just get the hell out of BP’s way and let them do what they’re good at.  Fixing massive oil leaks.  God bless America, and God bless BP!

Or something like that.  Honestly, I’m not even sure what the point of Barletta’s article really is.  At one point he says that there’s too much government involvement in the Gulf, a few lines later he says that the Federal Government’s first priority should be plugging the leak, then he ends by adding that the government should halt it’s criminal investigation into BP.  He also, at the very beginning, quotes Ronald Reagan because that’s what all good Republicans do.  At no point in this article, however, does Lou Barletta express outrage at BP or the role that they’ve played in this entire disaster.  In fact, reading this article, you’d think that the Federal Government caused the oil leak and that BP was just an innocent victim.

Lou Barletta just recently released a YouTube video proclaiming that he “Stands with You!”  Supposedly, Lou Barletta wants to go to Congress to look out for all of us.  However, it would seem, from content posted to Barletta’s own website, that he really wants to go to Congress to stand up for BP.  If he had his way, Barletta would halt all government intervention, keeping oversight at “water’s edge”, and allow BP to do whatever the hell it wants to do in the Gulf.  Because, as we all know, BP does amazing things when left to their own devices.  Oh.  Wait…

So, in closing, let’s take a moment to reflect on who Lou Barletta is really standing up for.  He just wrote this little article defending BP and decrying the government’s involvement in the crisis.  He has accepted thousands of dollars and multiple donations from The Eagle Forum, a group of political crazies who wants to keep women shackled in their homes and make it okay for men to rape their wives.  He has, in the past, accepted money from convicted drug dealers and publicly defended these gentlemen as decent and hard working people.  And, he has also been endorsed for Congress by David Duke, a self-proclaimed white supremacist and former member of the Ku Klux Klan’s senior leadership.  So, yeah, how do we get this guy elected to Congress?  He’s a regular Captain America.

The truth of the matter is that, as I’ve pointed out on this blog for over two years now, Lou Barletta is political scum.  If you look at who Lou Barletta supports, and who supports him, it becomes clear that Mayor Barletta is not on our side.  Because, if he was, he wouldn’t be spending his time writing articles that defend BP.  He wouldn’t be accepting money from The Eagle Forum.  And he wouldn’t accept endorsements from members of the KKK.  Lou Barletta should not be elected to the United States Congress.

See also: “False Statements” About Lou Barletta Really Aren’t False and Barletta Disrespects US Military

-Dan Cheek
www.StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com