STILL TAKING BP’S SIDE…. After President Obama convinced BP to set aside $20 billion for victims of the devastating oil spill along the Gulf Coast, Republicans went out of their way to side with BP. Indeed, the Republican response to the victims’ fund included an apology to the foreign oil giant, and widespread condemnations of the relief money for families and small businesses.
It was one of the more transparently ridiculous political strategies in recent memory — one national poll found 82% of the public backing the creation of the fund — and the GOP quickly found other things to complain about.
But Sharron Angle, the extremist Senate candidate in Nevada, hasn’t quite given up on the pro-BP talking points, and went after the victims’ fund on a radio show yesterday.
Looks like Sharron Angle has now had her ultimate Rand Paul moment: During a radio interview she labeled the $20 billion BP escrow fund secured by the White House as a “slush fund.”
Angle also seemed to agree with a caller who flatly described the fund as extortion, and added: “Government shouldn’t be doing this to a private company.” For good measure, she said Dems are exploiting the crisis to push energy reform and are following “Saul Alinsky’s rules for radicals.”
Angle went on to say that the Obama administration’s response to the disaster is an “overreaction.” She added “they” are using the disaster “to get in cap and trade, and every crime and penalty, and slush fund.”
This is the same Angle, you’ll recall, who said shortly after the spill crisis began that her preferred energy policy would be to “deregulate” oil companies like BP.
It just never occurred to me that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) could be this lucky.
Update: Angle’s campaign starts walking back the “slush fund” remarks.
