Marc Ambinder’s recent Agitprop contribution on the Obama administration’s oil spill response has some merit. He may be right to criticize criticize conservatives’ constant invocation of the Jones Act (still a terrible law that should be repealed), especially because the Jones Act contains a specific provision for oil spills.
But his first line:
The Truth: Not a single government that has offered its assets for free has been refused by the U.S. …
Uh, yeah, that’s one nice “agitprop” way of putting it, because exactly one government (Mexico) has offered assets for free. As you can see from the State Department’s most recent list, there were also two other “unpriced” offers of help from multi-national organizations, not of assets but of personnel.
The question here has never been about whether we have to pay, it’s been about the fact that we lack basic materials like boom and skimmers at any price. That we’ve waited so long to accept so many apparently legitimate offers (and many remain “under consideration”) is baffling and frustrating. It reflects poorly on someone, whether it’s this administration or our bureaucratic system — probably both.
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