Oil of Delay: McCain Cancels Louisiana Trip After Barge Spill

Senator John McCain canceled his trip to visit Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal as almost half a million gallons of crude oil began to coat the Mississippi River. The McCain campaign barely avoided stepping on a campaign banana peel, or oil slick as it were, reportedly planning a Gulf Coast oil rig photo op as a 30 mile stretch of Mississippi was shut down from a barge split in two by a tanker last night.

The stench of industrial grade oil fills the air through the French Quarter, and New Orleans residents have been asked to conserve water until the cleanup is completed. Two barge halves, bow and stern, are now poking out of the river as tugboats hold them in position. Almost 80 miles are now covered by the spill, no one knows for how long, and the oil is floating down to our already endangered wetlands. In a example of the timing that has gob smacked the McCain campaign, the Times Picayune's nola.com reports that McCain had been planning to visit an offshore rig on this New Orleans junket. It's not the image a presidential candidate wants in the middle of an environmental nightmare.

The big break the campaign received is cable news covering Hurricane Dolly all day with no mention of McCain's slick cancellation. The weather was briefly mentioned as cause of the junket's postponement.

It did rain this morning in New Orleans, so the oil congealed faster than it would have, but cleanup will still be difficult. With water intakes closed, having fresh drinking water may become a problem as the spill slowly moves downriver. After Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans suffered close to 400 oil spills across the metro area so the city has more experience in environmental cleanup than any city should have to suffer through.

Notwithstanding Senator Mitch McConnell's view of the prettiness of oil rigs, there's nothing pretty about oil floating out to meet the oil being pumped from the rig McCain stands on to promote pumping more American oil. The 420,000 gallons of crude oil floating on the water right now are highly flammable, so it would have been a precarious photo op across the board.

The candidate's camp now says they will meet with Jindal at a different juncture in part of what Bob Novak, when he's not busy driving into people, admitted was a VP selection fakeout to pull coverage away from Senator Barack Obama's successful international trip.

In spite of his close call with an oily landing, McCain is still pushing to drill offshore in Florida, the West Coast and the East Coast. It would be no surprise if he flipped on ANWR, too. But don't expect an oil rig photo op until the candidate is sure our new New Orleans spill gets no national coverage at all.

McCain recently told a town hall meeting he would rather lose a campaign than lose a war.

The question here in New Orleans is clear: would the candidate rather lose our coastline than lose another gallon of gas?

Comments

[WFV]

No one was fooled by his 'bad weather' excuse - if it had been about weather, the trip would have just been posponed a day or so, not cancelled entirely.

Transparent and pathetic.

[TXOBAMAGIRL73]

I'm so fustrated with MSM ...The following of Barack on his trip wasn't the document the greatness of it all ...It really was to see, if he would make any mistakes. Why no one called McCain out on his support of this offshore drilling landing on this failed rig nonsense ? This oil spills blows a gaint hole in the offshore drilling theory, but their refusal to cover this should be highlights the bias and the gaps between the coverage or none coverage of the candidates. I live on the Texas Gulf Coast, I know first hand what a oil spill can do to a coastline and its habit. While we are being lullabied into waiting on the first barrel of 5-7year old crude oil that doesn't get better with time unlike fine wine. They would be placing precious coastal area in harms ways.

[luziannagirl]

TXOBAMAGIRL73

Yeah, TXO, Why doesn't MSM point that out? Don't we all wonder?

MSM has been bought and paid for. No such thing as the evening news. Thing of the past.

If this gets out at all, the blogosphere will have to do it.

And now, over to you, KDB!

[tel8034]

Jay Leno in his monologue was so right .

After Katrina there was a 6 day wait before anyone in the Federal Government showed up to help the hurricance victims.

After the oil spill there was immediate reaction from the Federal Government.

Moral of the story .............. With the Bush administration, saving oil is more important than saving people.

McSame is totally on board with Bush ...... Where was he and Bush during the 6 day wait?........ Cutting the McCain birthday celebration cake.

[JulieKay]

The major reason for the fast response was the river was blocked. The news reports were frantic about it costing 275 million a day for businesses.

I saw a couple reports that the damage to the environment was minimal, which seemed to be premature since the final determination had not been determined.

[TheMontu]

I know this is serious, it's terrible that this much toxic pollutant just got dumped into the Mississippi and is threatening the citizens of New Orleans, wild life preserves, etc.

But I can't stop laughing at this, because someone on M c Ca ins bus decided the the best way to avoid a bad photo-op was to stand him in front of CHEESE!! I mean, COME ON!!

[Cathexis]

"Oil of DeLay" ... ha! Now THAT was a clever headline! :-)

[Karen Dalton-Beninato - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks Cathexis, my husband helped with the rhyming and photos. He's handy.

[DevilAdvocate]

can we have more stories on this... I mean, Oil got dumped and what did Obama say about offshore.... mmmmm

[jayburd]

John McCain is presented with a golden opportunity to strengthen his image and talk responsibly on the environment¦and he cancels the trip.

He also canceled visiting the offshore rigs in the gulf he was planning to because of Hurricane Dolly. And this coming after his campaign recently said "we withstood hurricanes Katrina and Rita and didn"t spill a drop of oil." Right. Except for the 113 platforms that were destroyed, 52 platforms that were damaged, 500+ pipelines that were damaged, and the over 700,000 gallons of oil that were lost in offshore spills. But except for all that, we"re fine. Not a drop was spilled.

This type of lying should not be legal. This is mendacity in the 1st degree and frankly, it makes the Bush administration look good in comparison.

[unity08]

But...but that might put a damper on his oil surge.

Yes JMC could have used this to point out the peril of chasing oil.

If the religious right likes to assign Gods hand to their perceived evils, can we use it too?

[luziannagirl]

unity08

Yeah. I've been saying, not altogether in jest, that we should do exactly that.

"Republicans: Party of Satan" or

"Vote Republican; Rot in Hell"

How're those for catchy slogans? May be wacky, but win-win. Sure to pick up a few swing votes, and the Democratic Party voting core will just assume they're jokes & ignore them.

[likeicare]

It'll be interesting to see how McSame's campaign spins this so they can blame it on Obama, the MSM, or both.

Anybody else see a pattern developing here?

[luziannagirl]

Yes, I do. And, of course they will, and it given the obliviousness of 1/2 the public and the collusion of MSM, it won't be hard, even when the facts say differently.

Up is down, down is up. It's that simple. (Never mind the facts, if your audience doesn't know them anyhow!)

It will be up to us to make enough noise that they won't get away with it!

[GulfAaron]

Of course, even this catastrophe won't stop the drill america first crowd. Facts don't matter to them. But for the record:
Oil and gas exploration and development has caused 40-60% of our coastal wetlands crisis in Louisiana (25-30 square miles of our wetlands turn to open water every year, removing critical natural storm protection from NOLA and other coastal cities).
Katrina and Rita combined to spill more oil than the Exxon Valdez.
American production can't significantly impact the price of oil (a global commodity, set by global markets)
Exploration and development on the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge (please stop calling it Anwar) will likely make the mess in Louisiana's wetlands look pristine (similar ecosystem, except the Arctic freezes every year)

[luziannagirl]

Oh, and as if the oil-spill-caused river traffic shutdown isn't enough to convince the Drill ANWR Full Speed Ahead crowd that Louisiana's record is nothing to brag to mama about, the morning news is now reporting that the interstate is shut down in both directions due to a chemical spill.

At least it makes OUR local news. Well. Our local traffic report, anyhow.

Really too bad McCain isn't visiting us today. He could have flown in and just looked down from a couple hundred feet up at the petro-product spill cluster-f_ _k that is currently Southeast Louisiana.

Can't you just hear the oil company rallying cry?

"OK, Louisiana's done! Stick a fork in 'er! On to ANWR!

[luziannagirl]

HuffPost's Pick

KDB

But...but...but...wasn't our Governor just last week touting Louisiana's sterling record for no major oil spills even in the inclement weather conditions of major hurricanes?

Of course, Jindal's pronouncement flies in the face of the gargantuan , Katrina flooding-related refinery oil spill environmental disaster which fouled (and still fouls) much of the formerly inhabited areas of Chalmette and St.Bernard Parish.

It also flies in the face of the hundreds and thousands of small spills, going on 24-7, across South Louisiana.

3 or 4 HUNDRED THOUSAND GALLONS of fuel oil spilled in the Mississippi River yesterday, not only closing down the nation's main bulk industrial shipping artery, but threatening to foul the DRINKING WATER for, what, a hundred thousand people. Not to mention all the environmental damage as the spill moves downriver to the largest remaining intact wild commercial seafood producing fishery in the lower 48 states.

The support system to service the oil/gas industry, and to transport the product, cannot be separated in discussing their environmental safety record. Republicans might get away with doing that, but journalists should catch them.

They aren't.

Since the thousands of little spills don't make the news, and news folk apparently forgot about the Chalmette enviro-fiasco since there are presently no photo ops of people actually floating dead in the streets, wonder if they'll cover this one? And remind us it's part of Louisiana's "clean" extraction example?

Bets, anyone?

[Daly]

I am wondering when all the zany religious folks will roll out saying that this is doG's will?

[Easttexas82]

Most of the rigs off the LA coast are natural gas rigs, not oil. And if he wants his picture taken on a rig, he could just go to Sabine Pass, TX. There are several huge drilling jack-ups and semi submersables that have been sitting in the river rusting for over 20 years. Oh, and there's a huge oil platform off the LA coast. But it's where the ships from Saudi Arabia stop to unload. They're too big to come into the port.
Why do we get oil from there? Because it's so easy. I had a friend from Saudi Arabia once. I commented to him once that there must be a lot of oil pumps over there like in East Texas. He asked, "what's an oil pump?" The point is, they don't need them. The stuff just comes out of the ground. Wells over here have to force the oil out of the ground. They just open a spigot. Do you folks really think we would spend so much money in Iraq if we could spend much less to drill here, get all the oil we need here, and then tell everyone in the Middle East to have a nice day? We will always need their oil. If we all stop driving our cars tomorrow, we will still need their oil to make all the other stuff made from it. There is really only one way to make the price come down: use less.

[noamjunior]

except that the price of oil is being gamed like enron gamed the cali energy market.