Rep. Michele Bachmann, America's Dumbest Congresswoman™, worries that the Gulf oil spill could turn into one big rip-off ... for BP.
UPDATE:
From the Tarryl Clark campaign:
Clark Takes On Bachmann's Defense Of BP
'Bachmann cannot escape the fact that she sided with BP and against us.'
Over the past two days, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann has taken to the airwaves to publicly defend and advise BP, and has outright opposed holding BP accountable for every penny of destruction.
In the Washington Post Tuesday, she said that if she were the head of BP she wouldn't let BP be "chumps" or get "fleeced" in paying for the destruction of the oil spill.
She likened making BP pay for the oil spill to "extortion" in an MPR radio interview on Wednesday.
In a speech to the Heritage Foundation, she compared relief funds provided by BP to a government-mandated "redistribution of wealth fund."
Last night, she told CNN's John King that BP shouldn't be a "permanent ATM card."
Statement from State Senator Tarryl Clark, Candidate for Congress:
"Let me be clear: I stand with the victims of this tragedy and the American taxpayers. They are the ones who deserve to be defended," said State Senator Tarryl Clark. "But instead, Congresswoman Bachmann has risen to the defense of BP. Holding BP accountable for this disaster is not 'fleecing' it. It's making sure they do what's right by the citizens of the Gulf whose livelihoods are threatened and by all Americans who want the Gulf cleaned up."
"Congresswoman Bachmann has made it clear where she stands: with BP, and against us," said Clark. "While Congresswoman Bachmann continually opposed common sense accountability measures for big business, Wall Street and Big Oil were allowed to run rampant with our savings and our environment. The American people were left to clean up the mess on Wall Street -- this time, we demand that BP take responsibility for this tragedy."
"Michele Bachmann refuses to hold BP accountable - but I will. Make no mistake, I stand with taxpayers, not BP."
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Quotations: Bachmann's defenses of BP
"But if I was the head of BP, I would let the signal get out there -- 'We're not going to be chumps, and we're not going to be fleeced.' And they shouldn't be. They shouldn't have to be fleeced and make chumps to have to pay for perpetual unemployment and all the rest -- they've got to be legitimate claims." (Washington Post, June 15)
"The president just called for creating a fund that would be administered by outsiders, which would be more of a redistribution-of-wealth fund." (Bachmann speech to Heritage Foundation, June 15)
"We don't want these payouts to become political. And we don't want - we don't think it's a good idea for the federal government to see private industry as essentially a piggy bank for the federal government." She added, "And while it's important that all the claims get paid, let's just make sure that this isn't a permanent ATM card." (John King live, June 16)
"(The President) continues to focus on blaming, and on extorting money out of a company instead of letting the courts make people whole." (Minnesota Public Radio interview, June 16)
"It looks like again the president is taking this opportunity to have the federal government go in with a federal government response, take money out of private industries for yet-to-be-determined ideas that the federal government will come out with. It's not just me saying it, there's a number of people here in Washington saying that this is the federal government forcing a financial redistribution. ... It sounds like the federal government essentially wants to nationalize BP and this could be pushing this company into bankruptcy." (MPR interview, June 16)
Bachmann is mentioned in this video from the DNC:
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