This is possibly the funniest, most transparently stupid thing I’ve read all year: Rep. Joe Barton Apologizes to BP’s Tony Hayward. A brief sample:

“I’m ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday. I think it’s a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown, in this case, a $20 billion shakedown.”

Given that he is, more or less, a paid employee of Big Oil, I’m not surprised. The frightening thing is that if the GOP takes the House this fall, he’s the guy in line to be the chair of the Energy & Commerce Committee.