Carly Fiorina: Yes to Offshore Drilling, Yes to Arizona Immigration Law

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: The environmental calamity in the Gulf of Mexico has caused, among others, President Obama and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to reassess their previous support for offshore oil drilling. But on ABC/Washington Post’s “Top Line” today, Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina said she doesn’t want to see failings of one company and federal regulators end future oil drilling – as Schwarzenegger, R-Calif., and the woman Fiorina wants to defeat, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., have suggested. “I disagree with both Schwarzenegger and Boxer, and I disagree with the actions that the president took,” Fiorina told us. “This is a tragedy going on in the Gulf Coast — we’ve lost 11 lives, we now have people who are ill, it is an economic, and human and an environmental tragedy, and we should get to the bottom of it and understand what happened. And it now looks as though BP had warnings that something was wrong, and they ignored those warnings, which is obviously a terrible situation, and they need to be held accountable. “But it’s also pretty clear that the regulators were not doing their jobs, were in bed with the industry — literally — not to mention watching porn,” she added. “So let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Let’s get to the bottom of this, make sure it never happens again. “But you know, the offshore drilling that Barbara Boxer wants to ban permanently — thus taking the decision away from the people of California, which is where this decision belongs … this is political grandstanding, in my opinion.” “That doesn’t mean that responsible folks shouldn’t be able to pursue offshore drilling. And also remember, we need a comprehensive energy plan in this country, and we don’t have one today. And all of President Obama’s talk about clean, green energy is great, but that is not a solution to our energy solutions today, and it is not a comprehensive plan.” On immigration, Fiorina said she supports the controversial new law in Arizona – and blasted the federal government for not fixing the nation’s immigration system. “I support the Arizona law. The people of Arizona did what they felt they had to do, absent the federal government’s decision to do its job,” Fiorina said. “This is the federal government’s job. It’s President Obama’s job. It’s Janet Napolitano’s job. And Barbara Boxer, as our senator, instead of standing up and challenging the constitutionality of the Arizona law, she ought to be standing on the president’s desk and saying, ‘Do your job.’ Why is it that we are prepared to allow the federal government to be unaccountable and to not do its’ job? “Please, Mr. President: Do your job in the Gulf, and do your job on the border,” Fiorina said. With her campaign airing a new ad attacking one of her rivals, Tom Campbell, Fiorina said she’s the fiscally conservative choice in her state’s GOP primary the week after next: “This is not a fiscal conservative, and the ad merely points that out in a very factual way,” she said of her rival. And Fiorina professed not to know the identity of the “demon sheep” – as featured in a strange but viral Web video earlier this year. (Whoever it is in the demon sheep costume has a standing invitation to appear on “Top Line,” provided he or she brings the glowing red eyes.) “Well, I don’t know who is in the demon sheep suit,” she said. “But we do have people who like to get in a demon sheep suit. We see them every now and then out on the campaign trail.” Watch the full interview with Carly Fiorina HERE.

For our “Post Politics” segment, we checked in with Paul Kane of The Washington Post on the politics surrounding the White House’s purported job offer to convince Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., not to run for Senate. Watch the segment with Paul Kane HERE.