demanded he take back his apology to bp or lose his senior position on the committee. hours later, this. >> i want the record to be absolutely clear that i think bp is responsible for this accident and if anything i've said this morning has been misconstrued in an opposite effect, i want to apologize for that misconstrued, misconstruction. >> reporter: later, barton issued a written statement saying flatly, i retract my apology to bp. one senior gop source told me republicans forced that because they've been saying bp bears responsibility and barton's comments allows democrats to see say, you see, republicans are beholden to big oil. dana bash, cnn. >> lot of politics today. julia reed, contributing editor for "newsweek" and author and