July 22, 2010

After the BP Catastrophe: Gauging the Impact for 10 Politicians

Flickr/<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/greenpeaceusa09/" target="_blank">Greenpeace USA 2010</a>

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The local environment has been ruined and the regional economy has been decimated. Now, some elected officials are finding that the Gulf oil spill is a political catastrophe, too. But for every Joe Barton who managed to say the wrong thing at the wrong time, there are officials who may come out of this crisis without so much as a drop of oil on their careers. The Atlantic takes a look at the fortunes of 10 politicians affected by the incident in this slide show.

This post was produced by The Atlantic for the Climate Desk collaboration.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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