Public Enemies?

The truth of a quotation attributed to Harry Truman: "If you want a friend in Washington DC, get a dog." can seldom be more clearly illustrated than the recent and ongoing demonization of British Petroleum (BP) by the political leeches in Congress and the Obamunist Administration. Until recently, the company logo, intended to evoke visions of an enviro friendly corporation along with the slogan "beyond petroleum" were presented ad nauseam in video advertising. This public relations campaign was also accompanied by an aggressive rent seeking effort:

[T]he Kerry-BP alliance for an energy bill that included a cap-and-trade scheme for greenhouse gases pokes a hole in a favorite claim of President Obama and his allies in the media — that BP’s lobbyists have fought fiercely to be left alone. Lobbying records show that BP is no free-market crusader, but instead a close friend of big government whenever it serves the company’s bottom line.

While BP has resisted some government interventions, it has lobbied for tax hikes, greenhouse gas restraints, the stimulus bill, the Wall Street bailout, and subsidies for oil pipelines, solar panels, natural gas and biofuels.

Now that BP’s oil rig has caused the biggest environmental disaster in American history, the Left is pulling the same bogus trick it did with Enron and AIG: Whenever a company earns universal ire, declare it the poster boy for the free market.

As Democrats fight to advance climate change policies, they are resorting to the misleading tactics they used in their health care and finance efforts: posing as the scourges of the special interests and tarring “reform” opponents as the stooges of big business.

Expect BP to be public enemy No. 1 in the climate debate.

Of course, in the current political climate few will note the parallels with the rent seeking  relationships of I.G. Farben and Friedrich Krupp AG with the German National Socialist government 1933 1945. Nevertheless, rent seekers are leading candidates for scapegoats by collectivist politicians as Mr. Hayworth has discovered to his dismay.

I would submit to you, dear reader, that the real public enemies in this tragic train of events are the environazis and the politicians at whose behest BP is forced into drilling in 5000' of ocean depth while petroleum reserves on dry land and shallow water are placed off limits.