Congressman Charlie Melancon is calling for BP CEO Tony Hayward to step down. Sam Stein explains:
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.
Using Mississippi John Hurt in an ad soundtrack is, in itself, a solid rationale for Melancon's candidacy; but Stein also points to this Think Progress post about Vitter's 2000 legislative proposal that would have limited oil companies' criminal liability for oil spills. Of course, Vitter yesterday teamed up with Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal to criticize President Obama's temporary moratorium on deepwater oil drilling. Let's hope the people of Louisiana are noticing.