Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Why I Hate The Repugs

This is a case study.

So Scumbag Santorum gives an interview and says that people who cannot leave pending disaster sites in advance of warnings should be penalized. Of course he’s referring to people in New Orleans and elsewhere on the gulf coast who surely would have left if they could (or, as Bill Maher said in tongue-in-cheek fashion last Friday, making fun of Bushco’s attitude towards the poor along the Gulf Coast: “I don’t understand it. Why didn’t these people just load up the Range Rover with extra cases of spring water and drive off to their summer homes?”).

So the Casey, Jr. campaign FINALLY shows a sign of life and calls Santorum on his remarks. Santorum backpedals and says, no, of course I wasn’t referring to the people I was really referring to. But local officials should be blamed for not making transportation available to people who needed it.

I hate to agree even slightly with anything from the Repugs, but I have to give them that. Gov. Kathleen Blanco should have seen to it days in advance that people were transported out of there if possible. However, that will be one of the subjects of the investigation into this disaster that will follow, and it may turn out that she took the correct action but was ignored. Also, to criticize her for this is utterly incidental when looking at FEMA’s managerial and administrative incompetence and Bushco’s failure to coordinate the relief effort in time despite NUMEROUS warnings that a Category 5 hurricane would hit the area one day.

So Casey Jr.’s people said Santorum should have clarified his remarks. They’re right, and that should have been the end of it.

But no. Dan Ronayne, Santorum’s spokesman, said this about Casey Jr.

"This is exactly the kind of lowbrow politics that Casey Jr.'s campaign employed against Ed Rendell because they have a candidate with a thin resume who doesn't take positions on issues," he said.
Mr. Ronayne, your guy screwed up. Again. Be a man, take the hit, and shut up.

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