Why Republicans needed Joe Barton to clam up

The new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, which generally has bad news for the president and Democrats, finds that the company Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) apologized to is historically toxic.

[O]nly 6 percent have a favorable rating of BP. In the history of the NBC News/Journal poll, Saddam Hussein (3 percent), Fidel Castro (3 percent) and Yasser Arafat (4 percent) have had lower favorable scores, and O.J. Simpson (11 percent) and tobacco-maker Philip Morris (15 percent) have had higher ratings.

Less popular than O.J. Simpson! Years of happy-go-lucky BP TV ads down the drain; any chance that Republicans will defend the company, long gone.