We all know much of politics is theater–the art of convincing constituents that you’ve correctly diagnosed a problem, that you share their interests and feel their pain. This has been truer than usual in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The federal government lacks the technical expertise to cap a leak spewing a mile beneath the Gulf, but its representatives’ reputations hinge on their ability to appear competent and commanding in the face of a crisis. So they dial up the outrage, send angry letters, or summon scapegoats to Capitol Hill for a ritual brow-beating.
This sort of stagecraft can yield tangible results. Pressed by the Coast Guard, BP announced it has found a way to siphon more oil from the ruptured wellhead, and plans to increase the amount of crude it can capture to at least 40,000 barrels of oil a day — up from 15,000 today — by the end of the month. Despite scientists’ skepticism, local officials like Plaquemines Parish president Billy Nungesser and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal were able to kick-start a massive effort to use sand berms as bulwarks against the oil. Both Nungesser and Jindal have been lauded for their response to the spill, in part because they have wielded the megaphone astutely, railing repeatedly against BP and the feds for doing too little, too slowly.
Given the magnitude of the crisis, it should be no surprise that President Obama — now on his fourth trip to the Gulf since the April 20 blast — will use his first Oval Office address to detail a plan to force BP into setting up an escrow account to make whole the businesses and individuals afflicted by the spill. As the New York Times explains, Obama is expected to detail a plan to force BP to make the spill’s victims whole:
On his return, Mr. Obama will speak to Americans from the Oval Office, a setting that past presidents have often used but which Mr. Obama never has, despite the gravity of the issues his administration has already faced, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, and the president’s signature domestic initiative, overhauling the health care system.
Mr. Obama is expected to outline in his speech a plan to legally compel BP to create an escrow account to compensate businesses and individuals for their losses from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, administration officials said on Sunday.
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The actions set for this week reflect the administration’s efforts, nearly two months into the crisis, to telegraph a take-charge decisiveness when Mr. Obama and the federal government are all but powerless to actually resolve the calamity, given the sheer technological challenge of plugging a leak a mile below the gulf’s surface. Mr. Obama’s moves this week, together with events in Congress, put BP on the defensive more than at any other time since the explosion.
As Greg Sargent points out, Senate Democrats have surmised that this strategy is a political winner. Fifty-four of them have penned a missive urging BP to sink $20 billion into the fund. As Sargent notes,
It’s a sign that Dems — perhaps belatedly — are displaying some real anger here and are keeping the spotlight on BP and the need to hold it accountable. The House GOP leadership has now endorsed lifting the liability cap, but Republicans have repeatedly blocked efforts to lift it in the Senate. Dem Senate leaders, it seems, recognize they have a winning issue on their hands and intend to press the point.
The letter says the establishment of such a fund would be “an act of good faith.” The same could be said of the Democrats’ decision to write it. After all, it’s not really their fault that their hands are tied. But with the Gulf economy reeling and the oil bearing down, it’s hard to feel good about the fact that the best response they can muster is to fire off yet another angry letter.