--- TOO BAD.... He's done for.



the Kentucky Senate nominee raised more eyebrows Friday by defending the oil company blamed for the Gulf oil spill.

"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,'" he said in an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America." "I think that sounds really un-American in his criticism of business."

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told CNN on May 2: "Our job basically is to keep the boot on the neck of British Petroleum."

Other Republicans have criticized the government's handling of the oil spill. But few have been so vocal in defending BP, the company responsible for the deep well and offshore rig that exploded last month, killing 11 workers and spewing millions of gallons of oil.

Paul said BP has agreed to pay the costs of the cleanup and damage. "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," he told ABC.

He also referred to a Kentucky coal mine accident that killed two men, saying he had met with the families and admired the coal miners' courage.

"We had a mining accident that was very tragic," Paul said. "Then we come in and it's always someone's fault. Maybe sometimes accidents happen."

Mine safety advocate Tony Oppegard said it's premature to make such comments because the federal investigation of the Dotiki mine cave-in is not finished. "It's easy for him to say we look for someone to blame," Oppegard said, "but the fact is, this company had a horrible safety record."


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