James Carville To Obama: Tell BP 'I'm Your Daddy' And Take The Lead In Response

James Carville offered new criticism of the federal response to the BP oil spill Wednesday, and argued President Obama still doesn't get it.

On Tuesday, BP's chairman argued that the oil company was "big and important" to the U.S. An angry Carville took issue with those remarks and told CNN's John King that Obama must lay down the law:

Carville: "BP is not the equal of the United States government. This president needs to tell BP 'I'm your daddy, I'm in charge, you're going to do what we say. You're a multinational company that is greedy and you may be guilty of criminal activity.' It's time that we understand, BP does not wish this thing well. They have been negligent. They need to whip out their checkbook and start moving into action and the president needs to push them."

Carvile told King that he believes President Obama is not being told what the situation is in "a very candid way," but that he's optimistic that a "sea change" will occur after President Obama visits on Friday, the 39th day of the disaster.

Carville's wife, Republican strategist Mary Matalin, appeared with him and agreed that the federal response was not enough.

Carville has been a vocal critic of the federal response.

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