Florida’s Democratic gov. hopeful attacks White House spill response

Alex Sink, the Democratic candidate in the Florida governor’s race, isn’t impressed with the White House's response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill or the work of claims czar Ken Feinberg.

Sink — the state’s chief financial officer — said yesterday that she “absolutely did not” like the way President Obama handled the damages claims.

“I went over there ... within days and saw that the federal government had put BP in charge of the claims process. BP is an oil drilling company. They didn't know anything about handling claims. And, besides, they're the ones who caused the problem,” Sink said on the MSNBC program “Hardball with Chris Matthews.”

“I thought the administration should have brought in an independent adviser, or FEMA even should have been brought in,” she added. “And it took them months before they finally named this Ken Feinberg. And he hasn't done much of a better job for Florida small businesses. It hasn't been a good situation, Chris, very disturbing.”

BP initially handled claims after the spill began. But the process was eventually transferred to an independently run, $20 billion claims fund that the White House pressured BP to finance. Feinberg manages the claims fund.