Sen. Candidate Dave Westlake Backs BP, thinks Government should be powerless against Big Oil.

If only business had the chance to run America, wouldn't we be a lot better off? Crazy?

That's what Dave Westlake thinks. Government has no business getting involved by giving aid to devastated Americans effected by BP's Gulf oil catastrophe. They should go through the courts for just compensation, which might take one, three or ten years.

WisPolitics: U.S. Senate candidate Dave Westlake, echoing controversial remarks by Texas U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, called the $20 billion fund the White House pressed BP to set up to pay claims resulting from the Gulf oil spill "nothing more than a shakedown of BP" this morning at a forum in Brookfield, the first of the primary season.

Below is a clip a compilation of Westlake and followup coverage of the actual "shakedown."




Westlake was very clear about taking the free market position:

“Shaking BP down for $20 billion doesn't do anything to further that end or to get the oil cleaned up faster,” Westlake said.

Johnson expressed concern that the Obama administration appeared to skirt the law in setting up the fund rather than going through the normal legal process.

“It is very troubling when we circumvent the rule of law,” Johnson said. “I think they would have been held liable, and that would be the way to do this.”

The campaign of U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Middleton, ripped both candidates as "out of touch" for their reaction toward BP following the debate.

"The fact that both Republican candidates came out in opposition to holding BP accountable for the worst environmental disaster in our country's history shows just how addicted the GOP is to big oil special interests and how out of touch they are with Wisconsin," said John Kraus, senior strategist for the Feingold Campaign. "It should come as no surprise that Ron Johnson would oppose the BP fund since he has already said this is not the time to be beating up on big oil. But it's very telling that Johnson sees BP as the victim, not our environment or the people whose lives are turned upside down by the reckless actions of BP."

Ann Woolner, Bloomberg News: But how can it be a shakedown, when BP had already pledged to pay all legitimate claims? If that was a sincere offer, then the fund is simply an apparatus to ensure that it keeps its promise and does so fairly and more quickly … It gives BP’s word credibility.

Nor can we say how accepting BP was of the escrow account and new claims process. No allegations of waterboarding have surfaced. This is the first credible piece of good news for the people and businesses of the Gulf of Mexico in two months. If BP had to be shaken down to produce it, then shame on BP.