In the opening hours and days of an unanticipated event -- such as the offshore oil leak -- usually not much can be reliably learned about the details of the intruding event. But much can be learned about the humans responding to it.
For example, on April 29, the ninth day of the crisis and the first day that the White House -- in the person of the president -- publicly responded to the growing mess, key players made revealing comments.
It was clear that the administration was sensitive to that political danger and was starting to point accusatory fingers at British Petroleum. ABC News reported:
"Asked about the relationship between the U.S. government and British Petroleum, (Coast Guard) Admiral (Sally Brice-) O'Hara referred to 'the professionalism of our partner, BP,' and then corrected her use of the term 'partner.' ... 'They are not a partner,' said (Secretary of Homeland Security Janet) Napolitano. 'Bad choice of words,' said O'Hara, changing her description of BP to 'a responsible party.'"
Note that the admiral is a career professional doubtlessly experienced with ocean currents but obviously not alert to the ever-shifting political currents in which she found herself. From a professional, problem-solving point of view, BP was a partner with the Coast Guard in trying to fix the mess.
But Napolitano, as a class-A politician, can see which way the political currents are moving and quickly goes with the flow.
A few days later on CNN's Sunday "State of the Union" show, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar didn't have to be told the new political facts of life. He jumped right in with this little gem: "Our job basically is to keep the boot on the neck of British Petroleum to carry out the responsibilities they have both under the law and contractually to move forward and stop this spill."
Within three days, BP's status had shifted from being a partner with the government to having its neck pinned to the ground by a federal government boot.
On Monday afternoon, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs repeated and endorsed the phrase -- even after being questioned whether he really wanted to use that phrase.
I surely hope that the president, now that the phrase has made headlines, will come out and withdraw that noxious reference. Not only is the image of a boot on a neck inherently repulsive, but the representation of a government's boot so situated has a particularly vile history.
It doesn't require a George Orwell to understand the brutalizing, sadistic nature of that image. For better or worse, the opening days of the oil-leak crisis revealed the temperament of the administration -- which is to publicly brutalize the company that, whether they like it or not, they are going to have to work with to mitigate the environmental harm.
Doubtlessly, there will be blame enough to go around when all the facts are known. But what we already have learned is that the administration is willing to undermine a needed good working relationship between itself and BP as a price worth paying to try to gain an early political advantage.
Worst of all, it shows an unhealthy disposition toward the exercise of governmental power.
Tony Blankley, former editorial page editor of The Washington Times, is executive vice president of Edelman public relations in Washington.
