Chris Matthews Gets It Right

Matthews did a segment on Hardball yesterday on the Gulf oil disaster, and one part of his comment was truly heart warming. He had interviewed the head of the Coast Guard, which he did very sympathetically, and then was talking with Kate Sheppard of Mother Jones. She was remarkably unprepared, saying that BP was operating the rig, which was actually leased, and not having a clue how to answer when Chris asked where the oil was going to go. The answer, of course, was at least in great part into Louisiana wetlands and onto Florida beaches.

The transcript isn't yet available, so the following is only approximate,

"So the oil industry says, Hands off, as they make money. The best money in the world, I guess, is in the oil and energy business. And they say, Hands off. And then the minute something goes wrong, they turn it over to this good guy, this admiral, head of the Coast Guard, and it‘s somehow his job. And he says—I thought he put it beautifully. I said, Do you think this is worth the risk, given the fact they don‘t have back-up plans for safety? He said it was 'above my pay grade.' Well, isn‘t that the problem? The people whose pay grade it is, which is through the universe — through the ceiling in terms of money they make they‘re not taking it seriously, whereas this poor guy has to go in there and try to deal with the mess now."

Monday: Updated from the transcript, but go watch the clip. This little diatribe, which I thoroughly enjoyed, is 6:40 in.