Axelrod Sings Kumbaya

Add Chris Matthews to the list of commentators who do not know the name of the company he is attacking, referring to the well blowout in the Gulf as being a product of “British Petroleum,” although that particular comment seems to have been edited out of the online version of last night’s show.

David Axelrod was on to tell us all about the Administration’s participation in controlling this disaster, assuring us that Dr. Chu was intimately involved and that equipment from all of the oil companies was being marshaled to the scene, as were opinions and expertise from oil companies and research institutions worldwide. It was all very heartwarming and it sounded a lot more like damage control than it did truthful.

It would have been considerably more credible coming about thirty days earlier, coming before the media began being critical of the Administration, and coming from someone other than the former campaign manager and current political advisor. As it was, it seemed to me that if the Administration shoveled as much bullshit onto the oil well blowout as they are shoveling at the media, the oil leakage would probably be stopped.

Note that we still have nothing but BP's estimates of the amount of oil being released by the blown out well, along with some "guesses" by other parties based on data released by BP, and the only images we have from the sea floor are those released by BP. The updates from parties other than BP are accompanied by "BP says," which has to make one question the actual degree of the government's involvement.

To suggest that the government lacked authority to take command of the scene is utter nonsense. Either the EPA or the Coast Guard could easily have managed to come up with five or six rationales each under which they could take charge of the scene of such a disaster. The government merely wanted to be able to keep blaming BP for the fecklessness of the efforts.

The claim that the government lacked the equipment to deal with the disaster is equally nonsensical. An art critic does not need to have painting materials and need to know how to make paintings himself in order to provide expertise on the subject of art. The government needed to take charge, not to be doing the rescue effort, but to be directing the marshalling of resources and coordination of efforts. To believe that such marshalling and coordination is being done to the best effect by one party with a vested financial interest requires a staggering degree of credulity.

No, it requires mind-boggling stupidity, which apparently the Administration possesses in large measure. While Axelrod is assuring us that BP is doing a superb job, Napolitano is making threats about “pushing them aside” and the Coast Guard is saying that such a move is impossible. What we called in the Navy, pardon the language but no other term adequately describes it, a clusterfuck.