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Haley Barbour backtracked from his previous statement that the $20 billion escrow account would make it less likely that BP will pay for everything in regards to the damages from the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Now that he's found out the money will only go out in payments of $5 billion a year, he's much less worried his campaign donor will go out of business any time soon.

GREGORY: Governor, you--Governor Barbour, you've been concerned about the idea of this escrow fund, this $20 billion fund. Why?

BARBOUR: Right. Well, I thought that they were talking about taking $20 billion from BP all at once, and my fear was if you took $20 billion from them all at once, put it in an escrow account, then they wouldn't have the working capital to generate the revenue to pay us. I think the president was smart, and I congratulate him and BP that they reached an agreement. Instead of $20 billion taken out of that working capital all at once, it's actually going to be $5 billion this year, $5 billion the next year, $5 billion the following year and $5 billion the fourth year. That makes sure--as Mary Landrieu says, we want to make sure that BP stays in business, generates the revenues that will pay what they owe the states and our citizens. And I think the--I don't know if it's a compromise or not--the agreement they worked out not to do all the $20 billion, put it in an escrow account all at once, means that we're much more likely to get everything paid by BP, who, by the way, is supposed to pay everything.

I'm still wondering when Barbour will admit that there is a need for the fund in his state and that the oil has washed up on the shores of Mississippi as well.

President Obama gave his weekly address from Grand Isle, Louisiana and pledged to make sure that the business owners and residents are "made whole". Nice speech Mr. President but sadly these people will never be "made whole" because there's no way to undo the damage to the region that's already done. I also don't think that there's any question about whether laws have been broken. The question is whether they're going to be prosecuted or not and whether it's going to be underlings who go to jail or if we're ever going to see someone at the top held accountable for the damage they've done.

We'll see what action follows up the speech. Unlike the Chuck Todds and James Carvilles of the world, I could care less about how many times he goes down to the region or whether he looks like he's angry or not. I want to see some action being taken and this oil contained. So far they're not doing nearly enough. I hope that changes soon before it's too late for the areas that have not been affected yet.

It would also make me feel a lot better if I don't hear any more stories about Admiral Thad Allen and BP CEO Tony Hayward having nice cozy dinners together.

Weekly Address: President Obama Outlines Administration Response Efforts to the BP Oil Spill from Grand Isle, LA

WASHINGTON- In his weekly address, President Barack Obama underscored his commitment to helping the people of the Gulf Coast recover and rebuild from the BP oil spill that has threatened their livelihoods. On Friday, the President heard from local residents and small business owners about the hardships that they are facing as a result of this catastrophe. The Administration has mobilized the largest response to an environmental disaster of this kind in the history of our country to clean up the BP oil spill. Additionally, the federal government is working to ensure that BP and other companies are held accountable for damages and that aggressive new standards are put into place to avoid a disaster in the future.

Transcript below the fold.

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At least one of the eleven men that died in the initial explosion that triggered a disaster in the Gulf expressed concerns about safety practices on the oil rig.

Transocean toolpusher Jason Anderson told his wife, Shelly, that he was concerned about BP's safety practices on the rig. Anderson was so worried about an accident that he spent his last trip home getting his affairs in order.

"Everything seemed to be pressing to Jason about getting things in order. In case something happened. Teaching me how to do certain things on the motor home so that I could go and do things with the kids, make sure that I knew how to do everything," an emotional Shelly Anderson told NBC's Lisa Myers.

Her husband drew up a will and talked about his hopes for their daughter and son.

The last few times Jason called her from the rig he was was clearly worried.

"They were getting pressure from someplace higher up to do things that maybe weren't exactly the way Jason thought that they should be," she said. "It was a safety issue."

"Jason's father told us Jason was concerned that BP, which controlled the rig, kept wanting to stray from procedures to finish the well faster, which Jason considered unsafe," Myers reported.

The Transocean CEO sat in the Anderson kitchen and told Shelly how he would take care of her family. But even before the memorial service could take place, Transocean went to court to limit their overall damages.

"They haven't even let us say good-bye to at least have closure for his memory a little bit, to have time to explain to a 5-year-old that her daddy is in heaven. They're filing these lawsuits to limit us. They need to just slow down. Back up," said Anderson.

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Looks like Mitch McConnell is channeling his buddy Lisa Murkowski on lifting the $75 million cap on damages for the oil companies. So let's see if we can follow Mitch McConnell's logic here. He doesn't want anyone to be able to sue the oil companies for more than $75 million in damages because it might put some of the smaller oil companies out of business. I would assume lifting that cap would only put them out of business if they actually they did more than $75 million worth of damage. So I guess that means McConnell would like for small companies to be allowed to do more damage than they can afford to pay for, because putting an unsafe company that did that much damage out of business would be worse than... allowing them to do more damage than they are capable of paying for. The mind reels.

GREGORY: Let me turn to the issue of the BP oil spill, which the president was quite angry about after the appearance by CEOs on Capitol Hill this past week, including the CEO of BP. You heard Senator Schumer say there ought to be more effort on the part of the government to look over the shoulders of the oil companies. What do you say?

McCONNELL: Well, look, we're all angry about it. This is a--an environmental disaster of gargantuan proportions, but the president's spent a whole lot of time pointing the finger at, at BP--and you should point the finger at BP and the other companies involved in it. We're also interested in knowing what the administration did. Was the Mineral Management Service a part of this administration that approved this site? It also approved this spill response plan. What kind of oversight did the administration provide during the course of the drilling? There are plenty of questions that need to be answered, and there'll be adequate time for that. But the administration's involvement in this will be a big part of the inquiry. In the meantime, we need to do everything we can to stop this spill.

GREGORY: What about the issue of legitimate claims, as BP said, that it will honor? Do you think that the cap for damages should be higher now, higher than $75 million, as you heard Senator Schumer say they would propose?

McCONNELL: Well, the danger in that, of course, is that if you raise the cap too high, there will be no competition in the Gulf and you'll leave all the business to the big guys like BP. What BP has said they need to be held to, which is they're going to pay for this. They ought to pay for it, and they will pay for it. But the danger of taking the cap too high is that you end up with only massive, very large oil producers able to meet that cap and produce in the Gulf. And look, we can't walk away--and the president's not suggesting this either--from offshore drilling. As horrible as this is, it's important to remember that we get 30 percent of our oil from the Gulf and, if you shut that down, you'd have $14 gasoline.

I'd also like to know where the Republicans were during the eight years of the Bush administration with their concern about MMS. I say investigate away, but they'd better be going back ten years and not just one for the causes of the problems within that department.