SeaScum: like pondscum, but bigger! Gulf-of-Mexico-sized bigger.
Every time a Republican tries to talk about Oilpocalypse, it gets worse. First, entertainer [sic] Limbaugh tried blaming "environmental whackos" while tinfoilhat conspiracy theorists theorized about theoretical North Korean submarines. Then Michael Brown horsetraded away any credibility he might have once had by suggesting that Obama wanted BP to tap into an underwater volcano so that Obama could undo his offshore oil drilling expansion. Rick Perry saw BP's acts as God's will, thus proving that in Texas, petroleum companies are deified.
Today's SeaScum: Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ).
Remember the Republican National Convention, where Republican chanted in unison "Drill, baby, drill"? Remember Jon Kyl's role as Republican Minority Whip? He wasn't whipping delegates. In fact, to hear him backpedal frantically today: "That was not a Senate Republican phrase," Kyl said. "I think there was a candidate that used that." Let's refresh your memory, Sen. Kyl: the candidate you wanted to finish her term as governor of Alaska? Ran with your colleague from Arizona for something or another? Ring a bell?
Perhaps his amnesia regarding "drill baby drill" is caused by cold hard cash: $329,832 from the oil & gas industry, and $270,837 from the electric utility industry, over his career.
Of course, Senator Kyl has a much better idea than drilling in the Gulf of Mexico: open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. "You are not in 5,000 feet of water. You have a got a pipeline nearby. You have experience drilling in that area just a few miles away." That's a lovely idea. After all, Alaska has valuable experience in cleaning oil from vulnerable sea animals. You can just ask what's-her-face for help prayers with the pipeline.
Meanwhile, British Petroleum executives show up to Congress looking like deer in the headlights as they admit the worst-case-scenario buzzing over the internet:
BP officials said the spill rate could be as much as 60,000 barrels (2.5 million gallons) a day — far above the 5,000-barrel daily rate estimated up to now. At the higher rate of flow, the spill would surpass the amount leaked from the Exxon Valdez in a bit more than four days. That 1989 spill dumped 10.8 million gallons into Prince William Sound.
BP officials have said they have no way of measuring the actual flow from the spill.
The tenor of the BP officials' meeting with Congress was that the companies "are attempting to solve a problem which they have never had to solve before at this depth ... at this scope of disaster."
All the more reason to drill here, drill now, and drill in ANWR, Senator Kyl the Vile. For this, you are the SeaScum of the Day. Have a glass of chocolate milk.