Associated Press | Kentucky’s Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul criticized President
Barack Obama’s handling of the Gulf oil spill Friday as putting “his
boot heel on the throat of BP” and “really un-American.”
Paul’s defense of the oil company came during an interview in which he tried to explain his controversial take on civil rights law, an issue that has overtaken his campaign since his victory in Tuesday’s GOP primary.
“What I don’t like from the president’s administration is this sort of, ‘I’ll put my boot heel on the throat of BP,”‘ Rand said in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “I think that sounds really un-American in his criticism of business.”
Paul appeared two days after a landslide primary victory over the Republican establishment’s candidate, Trey Grayson. He had spent most of the time since his win laboring to explain remarks suggesting businesses be allowed to deny service to blacks without fear of federal interference. On Friday said he wouldn’t seek to repeal civil rights legislation.
On the oil spill, Paul, a libertarian and tea party darling, said he had heard nothing from BP indicating it wouldn’t pay for the spill that threatens devastating environmental damage along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
“And I think it’s part of this sort of blame-game society in the sense that it’s always got to be somebody’s fault instead of the fact that maybe sometimes accidents happen,” Paul said.
The senate candidate referred to a Kentucky coal mine accident that killed two men, saying he had met with the families and he admired the coal miners’ courage.
“We had a mining accident that was very tragic. … Then we come in and it’s always someone’s fault. Maybe sometimes accidents happen,” he said.
The political novice came under blistering scrutiny little more than 24 hours a landslide Republican primary victory. He defeated a rival recruited by Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, and invited Obama, who never enjoyed popularity in the state, to campaign for Kentucky’s Democratic candidates as a strategy toward a Republican win in November.
Paul, 47 and an eye surgeon, is making his first run for public office, and his emergence as a favorite of tea party activists has been one of the most striking developments of the early months of the midterm election campaign. In an appearance on primary night, he credited their support with powering him to his victory, and the first opinion poll since then shows him with a commanding lead over his Democratic rival, Jack Conway.
YOu are right, they shouldn’t be blaming BP. They should be blaming the government for not putting regulations on oil drilling and also making sure the oil company puts billions of dollars away just for accidents like this. There should be multibillion dollar trust escros put aside by oil companies just in case of environmental impact. I would say that 25 – 30% of the value of the company should be in that escrow. That way there is an incentive of the oil companies to contain and build in safety equipment and invest in it. Today, there’s no incentive for it. They have a limit of $75 million dollars to pay for such things. How can we put the price of our lives, the lives of our kids, and our future on $75 Million? Remember every thing we do today impacts eveyrone else, not just yourself.
Of course it ‘Un-American’ BP hmm I wonder what the B stands for…… British.
Does the Tea Party really want to align themselves with a guy who is unsure about the enforcement of the Civil Rights Act? I get the whole “Government, get out of our business!” theme…but saying businesses should be allowed to actively discriminate is criminal. If this is the type of representation the Tea Party is recruiting, they better go back to the drawing board.
Really?
Paul thinks its un-American to regulate the company and now he thinks its un-American to hold the company responsible for its mess.
This guy is a joke and is better suited to the operating room than the senate floor.
I dont like wearing my seatbelt because I am a much better driver without it and am a lot more comfortable, so how come the police will still give me a ticket, I can only hurt myself if some jerk should hit me. I would also like to open a bar or restaurant for smokers only, I will post a sign on the door that ONLY SMOKERS ARE ALLOWED. At my 6 flat home I want to rent out 2 flats to black people and 2 flats to white people only 1 flat to a latino family.OK
jl, you are right: Rand IS better suited to the operating room than the Senate floor. He is a productive individual, not a parasite……….As for HeyNow “saying businesses should be allowed to actively discriminate is criminal” is a load of cr@p. What part of “Congress shall make NO law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” It didn’t say they could make SOME laws abridging the freedom of speech. As for the Civil Rights act…another example of the feds interfering in private contract areas in direct violation of the Constitution, and the Federal courts approving that violation…one fox policing another fox guarding the chicken coop.