Why the Bayou’s black sea can’t be blamed on Bush

In the Era of Obama, it seemingly never fails, regardless of how far away the Bush years become.

The most recent example of blame-game time travel came during a recent Sunday morning roundtable discussion that included Arianna “Nowhere Man” Huffington. Her criticism of the Obama administration on a number of issues surrounding the BP spill crisis in the Gulf of Mexico has turned interesting as we have watched a staunch liberal express both disapproval and some disillusionment with the liberal leadership in the White House.

Yet, true to form with many liberals throughout the nation, before the criticism went too far in placing the void of leadership and weight of blame at President Obama’s feet, a strange comment was given from Ms. Huffington—one that echoes throughout the bloc of Obama supporters and has done so since 2008.

This—the BP oil spill—is George Bush’s fault. Or, to be more accurate, “…It (the crisis in the Gulf) is absolutely a thousand percent Bush-Cheney’s fault…”

Upon hearing that, I concluded that if this is the liberal political mindset going on today, it’s no wonder that as we approach November 2010, the liberals in Congress are in trouble.

Then again, I also thought that if this is how we are going to conduct political discourse in America—continue the blind partisan “blame game” status quo that hinders us today—it’s no wonder that as we continue through an endless and jobless recession that is coupled with geopolitical tension overseas, the future of America as we know it is in trouble.

For all of the Halliburton/Cheney comments and theories about Bush’s connections to big oil, this simple fact must not be missed: President Obama was the biggest recipient of BP-affiliated political contributions over the past 20 years, pocketing some $3 million from BP PACs and another $600k from BP employees. If the Bush-Cheney big business connections prompted Republicans to cast a blind eye towards wrongdoings—such as liberals ascribe—then it must also be true that the large contributions that aided a little-known candidate to upset legacy politicians to win the presidency after his half-term tenure on Capitol Hill must have also influenced some leniency. After all, even if the Bush-led government provided opportunities for BP to skirt the rules and risk the Gulf of Mexico’s wetlands, the Obama administration has been on the clock for 18 months, plenty of time to address the 760-plus OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) violations that BP has accrued.