Rep. Charlie Melancon, LA Sen. Candidate, Documents Gulf Disaster, Calls For BP CEO Firing (VIDEO)

In a continuing blend of new media sensibility and activist politics, Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-La.) has posted a video shot from the Gulf of Mexico in which he argues that BP CEO Tony Hayward should be removed from his job.

The Louisiana Democrat, who is running for Senate this year against David Vitter, has been at the forefront of the effort to help personalize the oil spill in the Gulf: blogging about his experience, posting photos from the shore, and now publicizing a two-minute long tribute to a region being engulfed in oil.

There is, quite obviously, an emotional undercurrent to the clip. Melancon has been quite upfront about how moved he's been by the spill, openly tearing up during a committee hearing on the damage to the Gulf. That hearing footage was included in the video released on Friday, which a Melancon aide said was produced in-house.

WATCH:

"This is a tragedy that in some ways cannot be expressed in words," Melancon said in a statement accompanying the video. "This disaster is overwhelming, and the emotions it provokes are raw. We've put together this short video that I think helps capture how we feel about BP and how passionately we want to protect America's wetlands."

Politics are at play, as well. Hayward has naturally been taken as a villain in the Gulf, and a campaign to get him removed from his perch at BP -- Melancon's video directs viewers to a petition calling for the pink slip -- will surely resonate with home state voters.

So will efforts to portray Vitter as an ally of the oil industry. As Melancon's campaign prepped to blast the video to supporters, the Louisiana Democratic Party distributed a post by the progressive Think Progress revealing that in July 2000, then-Rep. Vitter introduced a bill that would have exempted BP and other companies from having to pay "more stringent criminal penalties" under environmental laws beyond the Oil Pollution Act.

Comments

[MsYellowDog]

08:12 PM on 06/05/2010

I am so hoping that this eminently sensible,plain-talking man can defeat the horrendously horrible Diaper Dave. How someone like Vitter,even in Louisiana,where they specialize in crooked politicians,can be elected is a mystery to me.

[Marie Russell-Barker]

12:23 PM on 06/05/2010

Representative Melancon seems to be a passionate Man when It comes to LA, I think he dearly love that part of the United State, this is his home and why shouldn't he. I think that we all should be as passion when it come to our home towns, cities States, this is home and we should love it.

I think any one who do not vote for him is just stubborn They know one thing he loves LA, this is how at one time that I though about our Mayor Daily he loved, Chicago. Just as I do. and this says one thing that he is compassionate beyond any other person, I really do like this in the Representative of LA. Good work sir keep up the faith and never let go!

[Jason Vise]

09:27 PM on 06/04/2010

This man is not a democrat.

Votes against climate bill

http://www.votesmart.org/speech_detail.php?sc_id=477650&keyword=&phrase=&contain=

Against health care bill and pro-life

http://www.melancon.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1216&Itemid=1

This one just about covers everything.

http://www.ontheissues.org/House/Charlie_Melancon.htm

Voting against taxing big oil

http://www.votesmart.org/speech_detail.php?sc_id=451037&keyword=&phrase=&contain=

[ed1946]

09:00 PM on 06/04/2010

This hasn't seemed to have gotten much circulation , Seems that a crew from Schlumberger, on contract to BP, hightailed it off the platform at their own expense 6 hours before the blowout because BP refused their recommendation to shut down the well. This lends more credence to Thom's suggestion that corners were cut because the bigwigs were coming for a visit.
"BP contracted Schlumberger (SLB) to run the Cement Bond Log (CBL) test that was the final test on the plug that was skipped.
SLB is an extremely highly regarded (and incredibly expensive) service company. They place a high standard on safety and train their workers to shut down unsafe operations.
SLB gets out to the Deepwater Horizon to run the CBL, and they find the well still
kicking heavily, which it should not be that late in the operation. SLB orders the
"company man" (BP's man on the scene that runs the operation) to dump kill fluid down the well and shut-in the well. The company man refuses. SLB in the very next sentence asks for a helo to take all SLB personnel back to shore. The company man says there are no more helo's scheduled for the rest of the week (translation: you're here to do a job, now do it). SLB gets on the horn to shore, calls SLB's corporate HQ, and gets a helo flown out there at SLB's expense and takes all SLB personnel to shore.
6 hours later, the platform explodes."

[JSaeger]

06:09 AM on 06/05/2010

Excellent that Schlumberger has the fortitude to adhere to such high safety standards. Such criminal negligence on the part of BP management could have or should have been stopped in its tracks at that very moment. How? By reporting such a blatant disregard for safety to a real-time, accessible ombudsman group of independent, inter-industrial overseers - who are paid and regarded for their abilities to not to say "yes" to the bottom line of a dollar but to assess overall safety from a consumer and workplace safety perspective. I guess the dollar value of this correlation lesson is just in phase one Mr. Hayward & Co.

[dayton52]

08:52 PM on 06/04/2010

Fired? In China he would rightfully be shot! F BP and the whores it rode on!

[GVEric]

06:49 PM on 06/04/2010

Next...fire every single employee at MMS....suspend all licensing for drilling and mining for the next 6 months. Then totally rebuild MMS, they are equally at fault for this disaster.

[Puller58]

06:33 PM on 06/04/2010

Hayward is a strawman. The real villains are trying to hide behind him.

[Deftguy]

05:42 PM on 06/04/2010

The American public is so funny to me.

"BP clean up this mess...You guys should be tarred and feathered". They say this while they are getting into their big SUV's, Hummers, and gas guzzling V8's.

American people wake the hell up! Didn't we learn anything from the great oil crisis of the 70's?

[ariveria]

07:31 PM on 06/04/2010

yes we learned if we elect republican 1980 then the oil crises goes away.

"a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth"
glenn beck
information czar fox news
the view 5/20/09

"when the truth is found to be lies"
jefferson airplane

[azhermit]

05:30 PM on 06/04/2010

why fire this clown? let's have some fun and let him and bp twist in the wind... if he's fired they will simply bring in a clown with a different costume and spin. the articulate bush clown... replaced with the obama clown. no difference except one is the bumbling clown and the other is the stealth republican clown.

[MAX1]

04:53 PM on 06/04/2010

HuffPo,
If you're gonna feature a Congressman and his struggle for his community, you may want to pay respect by actually linking to his petition and or web page...

http://www.melancon.house.gov/

[KENNETH BESOLD]

04:44 PM on 06/04/2010

Why don't they all get fired. From BP's CEO down to all of Congress

[tim73]

04:31 PM on 06/04/2010

How very "liberal" from you guys. Human rights go out of the window. "We should torture this guy and kill him". Tell me again why you guys are supposedly better than those right wing loonies? The same self-righteousness and arrogant c**p is spilling way out of control here too...

[tttom]

04:27 PM on 06/04/2010

The BP CEO is not the main villian here. There was no real regulation and when that happens in any money making enterprise - it's the race to the bottom (pun intended) every time. The easing up of Fed regulation fostered by the previous administration and the faceless regulators who cozied up to BP are the ones who are mainly responsible for this disaster.

[SPacific]

05:50 PM on 06/04/2010

You can thank Cheney and his oil buddies for our current energy policy that helped create this mess, and their culture of corruption that's still exists. Then you can thank the current republicans in the Senate who want to maintain the current liability limits to remain for EXXON at 75 Million), and do nothing about changing the Bush/Cheney policy....

[StLucie]

09:13 PM on 06/04/2010

obama has been in charge (lol) for 15 MONTHS and you still blame President Bush and VP Cheney. You need to get over yourself and get to work. Tell His Highness to get busy with something tangible. Platitudes do not get things done, and neither does his coldness that makes him seem unapproachable.

[doodlebug2]

03:47 PM on 06/06/2010

Really. So what should he do ? explain.
If he put higher regs on oil drilling you would be crying that there is to much regulation and it will make gas costs go up. correct? What did Bush 1 do at Valdez in 1989? pls explain answer and what MCain would do? Anyway, your group will do the same thing in 2013 when Palin wins, you can blame everything on this Pres.

[Nutcase]

04:25 PM on 06/04/2010

The CEO should be fired for doing what he paid the congress to permit him to do.

[CreativeKitty]

04:24 PM on 06/04/2010

yeah, Fire the CEO, Who is essential a frontman, a mouthpiece. And ALLOW the REST of the BP Board of Directors, and All the Upper Executives GET away with everything. Thats the plan, as its being shaped and delivered to the public by the corporate controlled media.
Americans are SO STUPID. Tony the CEO is being made the scapegoat SO the rest of the criminals get away with murder and gross negligence.
AND I COULD POST THIS 1,000 Times AND Most people would STILL Be Blaming the CEO
for EVERYTHING........sad but true

[CreativeKitty]

04:25 PM on 06/04/2010

....essentially a frontman......I need coffee

[Nutcase]

04:28 PM on 06/04/2010

I don't mind you using my excuse.