APNewsBreak: Hayward 'devastated' by spill
FREDERIC J. FROMMER and MATTHEW DALY | June 16, 2010 05:38 PM EST | AP
WASHINGTON — BP CEO Tony Hayward expects to tell Congress he is "personally devastated" by the Gulf drilling rig explosion and oil spill and understands the anger Americans feel toward him and his company.
The explosion and sinking of the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon rig "never should have happened – and I am deeply sorry that they did," he said in testimony to be delivered to a House panel Thursday. "My sadness has only grown as the disaster continues."
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Hayward has said he's got thick enough skin to handle the verbal assaults.
"I'm so far unscathed," he told analysts in a recent conference call, referring to the general criticism he's received. "No one has actually physically harmed me. They've thrown some words at me. But I'm a Brit, so sticks and stones can hurt your bones but words never break them, or whatever the expression is."
Charles Tiefer, a professor of legislative studies at the University of Baltimore Law school and former House general counsel, said witnesses in Hayward's situation often will have practice sessions in front of "murder boards," in which experts in crisis management and public relations throw the most hostile questions they can.
"There's no substitute for getting worked over by your own side for preparing you for a fierce reception," Tiefer said.
The BP CEO follows a long list of corporate faces used as congressional punching bags. Just this year, executives from Goldman Sachs spent nine hours trying to fend off accusations from senators that they bilked investors, and Toyota President Akio Toyoda personally and repeatedly apologized for deadly defects in his company's cars, only to have angry lawmakers forcefully respond that was hardly sufficient.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20100616/us-gulf-oil-spill-hayward-on-the-hill/
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