Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, is a petulant jerk.
The cost for residential heating oil is still well above what it was last year — which is a source of real hardship for many Americans this winter. And they're not getting any help from Congress, which still isn't funding LIHEAP, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, at a level that would allow all families that qualify to receive assistance.
Poor Americans are getting some help this winter from, of all places, Venezuela, where the per capita GDP — even factoring in Bobby Abreu's salary — is only around $5,800.
Venezuela's Citgo Petroleum Corp. is offering heating oil at a 40 percent discount to low-income families throughout the American Northeast.
Here are some of the words Rep. Barton has used to describe this assistance: "unfriendly," "belligerent," "hostile." Barton is chair of the House Energy Committee, whose spokesperson, Lisa Miller, also chimed in on the fuel assistance for poor families, calling it "obnoxious." Barton and Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Ky., have launched a congressional investigation of Citgo.
No, really.
Citgo is being investigated by the GOP Congress for helping low-income American families. Joe Barton seems to think launching such an investigation — trying to stop, or at least interfere with, such assistance — is his job as a member of Congress.
So who, exactly is Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas? His opponent in November, David Harris, tells us:
* Joe Barton is the bought-and-paid-for servant of the American oil industry.
* Joe Barton is a personal contributor of $5,000 to Tom Delay's defense fund.
* Joe Barton has been recognized as a "Clean Air Villain of the Month."
* Joe Barton voted against aid for victims of Hurricane Katrina.
I don't know Joe Barton personally, though, so it's possible that — aside from being a thoroughly corrupt hack working feverishly against the interests of his constituents and his country — he's actually a nice guy.
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