Y’all have heard me talk about Texas Republican Congressman Smokey Joe Barton a couple dozen times.  His seat tray is not in the full, upright, and locked position.

He’s called Smokey Joe because he’s in the hip pocket of the petroleum industry.

He’s also a details man.

Barton on Wednesday successfully changed the bill number for his legislation repealing a decades-old ban on crude oil exports from 666, a figure frequently tied to the antichrist and Satanism, to the more anodyne 702.

“It quickly became clear that the original bill number carried many different negative connotations,” Barton spokesman Sean Brown said in an email. “We decided it was best to change it so people will focus on the content of the legislation, not the bill number.”

Yeah, because repealing the ban on exports of crude oil is evil enough with announcing Armageddon.

Thanks to Jan for the heads up.