Congressional Democrats and the White House are toying with different ways to force BP to cover the costs of damages from the Gulf oil spill. But they face stiff opposition from industry...and it seems leading Republicans. In response to a question from TPMDC, House Minority Leader John Boehner said he believes taxpayers should help pick up the tab for the clean up.
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The Chamber is extremely influential in Republican politics, so on that level it's not particularly surprising that Boehner has Donohue's back on this one. But the politics of asking the federal government (i.e. taxpayers) to help cover the multi-billion dollar cleanup and rescue efforts are deadly. Look for Democrats to jump all over this one.

Late update: Boehner spokesman Michael Steel emails to say "Boehner made a general statement about who is responsible for the spill, and the federal government oversight was clearly lacking, but he has said repeatedly that BP is responsible for the cost of the cleanup."

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) was injured by a mohair goat on Thursday during a press conference to highlight subsidies to the mohair industry.

The goat nicked Weiner's right hand with one of its pointy, foot-long horns, hard enough to draw blood.

One Republican senator offered his suggestion for cleaning up oil in the Gulf of Mexico: the beer-brewing process.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa) said that some of the ingredients used to make beer could be deployed in the Gulf to contain and consume the oil that has been spreading over the last 51 days.

"I think that there's alternatives to soaking up oil that have not been used yet," Grassley said in a conference call with Iowa reporters. "There's a process for making beer — I don't know if it's the yeast or what it is in making beer. You can put those microscopic things on oil and they die, and all you've got is some methane gas left."