What have Joe and Jerry been drinking?

Yesterday, President Obama met with the CEO of British Petroleum and convinced the oil company head to commit $20 billion to a fund that would help victims of BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the biggest ecological disaster in this nation's history. Here's what Texas Rep. Joe Barton said about that this morning:

"I am ashamed of what happened at the White House yesterday. It is a tragedy in the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown – in this case a $20 billion shakedown.”

As the day wore on, with semi-intelligent members of his own party castigating him, Barton backed away from his incredibly stupid remark. Here's what three House Republican leaders said in a statement:
 

"Congressman Barton’s statements this morning were wrong. BP itself has acknowledged that responsibility for the economic damages lies with them and has offered an initial pledge of $20 billion dollars for that purpose."

Another Republican, Rep. Jeff Miller of Florida, said Barton's remarks rendered the Texas congressman unfit to serve as the senior Republican on the House Energy Committee. Well, at least he got the "unfit" part right.
 
Then there's Cowboys owner Jerry Jones saying, according to one source, what is now known as the Big-12 Conference should expand back to 12 teams by adding Arkansas and Notre Dame. But, then, like Barton, when many folks pointed out the stupidity of such thinking, Jones got the Cowboys office to say "I never said any such thing." Sure. Fine. Whatever. What happened was that he said it, but then when he saw the reaction to his statement, he had to find someone else to blame for being misquoted.
 
Arkansas already bolted a conference that contained Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor and Texas Tech. Why in heaven's name would they come back to one? And if Notre Dame's football program aligns itself with any conference - and I don't see that happening anytime soon - it will either be the Big East, the conference to which all of Notre Dame's sports teams except football belong, or the Big 10, which would seem to be a natural fit for the Irish. It certainly would not be the Big 12.
 
What Jerry was really salivating over were reasons to stage a series of games featuring Notre Dame, the closest thing to a national team in college football, and his own alma mater Arkansas in Jonestown. Doesn't look like that's gonna happen anytime soon.