Democracy Has Prevailed.

June 3, 2010

Toomey gets big bucks from Halliburton


Via Politico:
As Congress investigated its role in the doomed Deep Horizon oil rig, Halliburton donated $17,000 to candidates running for federal office, giving money to several lawmakers on committees that have launched inquiries into the massive spill.

The Texas-based oil giant’s political action committee made 14 contributions during the month of May, according to a federal campaign report filed Wednesday — 13 to Republicans and one to a Democrat. It was the busiest donation month for Halliburton’s PAC since September 2008.

Of the 10 current members of Congress who got money from Halliburton in May, seven are on committees with oversight of the oil spill and its aftermath.

[snip]

About one week before executive Timothy Probert appeared before the House Energy and Commerce’s investigative subcommittee, Halliburton donated $1,500 to Ranking Republican Joe Barton's reelection effort. It was Halliburton’s second-largest donation of the month — topped only by $2,500 to former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who is running for the Senate. [Emphasis added]

[snip]

Halliburton made the cement casings on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, and some experts have said the casings contributed to the cause of the disaster. Halliburton, in congressional testimony, has said it followed the orders of BP.


(h/t to Early Returns)

4 comments:

Social Justice NPC Anti-Paladin™ said...

But BP's donations to Obama can be ignored.
Al least according to Media Matters who defend them by saying that they were mostly from BP executives.

EdHeath said...

Well, good HTTT. You have raised accusations Palin directed towards Obama, and then raised the defense Media Matters proposed. Thank you.

Conservative Mountaineer said...

HTTT... then there's the (inconvienent) matter of a senior BP executive being appointed to an Administration post by Obama. Let's see how the liberals spin this. (I'll go get more popcorn.)

EdHeath said...

So when Obama brings in Van Jones, an outsider, into the administration, it is proof of Obama being a communist. Now Obama is in bed with the oil industry because he brings in Sylvia Baca. Which is it?

(by the way, thanks for linking to
your accusations, in the interests of being fair and clear ... oh wait).

Conservatives keep throwing up distractions like this, like the screamers at the town halls in September, when the rig started drilling, like Van Jones being forced to resign in September, when the rig started drilling. Then there was all this (from the ABCNews blog):
.................................
Perhaps the most notable embarrassment came in September of 2008. MMS Employees, who are tasked with ensuring that taxpayers get their share of oil and gas revenues from companies drilling on federal land, were fired for accepting gifts, favors - even sex - from oil industry employees. Some admitted using marijuana and cocaine on the job.

When so-called “oil for sex” scandal broke Danielle Brian the Executive Director for Project on Government Oversight told ABC News, “They have not only not been doing their jobs, but they have not been doing it because they have literally been in bed with who they are supposed to be overseeing,”

Under the Bush Administration, the Interior Department as a whole was rocked by one scandal after another. Sharon Buccino of the Natural Resources Defense Council told ABC News that for years it was completely mismanaged.

“Unfortunately we had people in control under the Bush administration who really put the interest and the profit of their friends in the oil and gas, coal industry front and center,” Buccino said.

Buccino points to Former Deputy Assistant Secretary Julie MacDonald, who the agency’s own Inspector General reported forced scientists to change their findings, even giving internal documents to oil companies and land developers. One report found that MacDonald kept some at-risk animals, like the Gunnison Prairie dog, off the endangered species list.

“She bullied scientist. She intimidated them into changing their answers,” said Tim Donaghy of the Union for Concerned Scientist.

Though MacDonald’s motives were never made clear, and she did not benefit financially, MacDonald resigned. So did Gale Norton, Interior Secretary for five years under President Bush, after she was tied to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. Her deputy, Steven Griles, was sentences to 10 months in prison for lying about his ties to Abramoff to the U.S. Senate.
..................................
But you are right, it is Republicans and conservative like yourself who have the interests of the people at heart, not the Democrats. After all, conservatives would never call the poor stupid (or at least conservatives would claim not to have done later).