Monday, September 12, 2005
Landrieu v. Wallace
There's no transcript, yet, for the questions of Chris Wallace on the Fox Sunday show and the non-answers he gets from Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA), but there is a tape here from the Political Teen, Ian Schwartz. And I have listened to it enough to piece together a partial transcript.
Landrieu says, "I am not going to level criticism at the local level....I am not going to level criticism at local and state officials." She then goes on to level not just criticism but actual blame at George Bush. "This administration does not believe in mass transit. They won't even get people to work on a sunny day." When Wallace shows her the famous (to those of us on the right) pictures of hundreds of flooded school buses in New Orleans, Landrieu repeats, "Those buses were underwater." Wallace says twice that they weren't underwater on Saturday or Sunday [before Katrina hit]. Landrieu ignores him
You have to ask yourself, why won't she answer the question?
(hint: The person responsible for not using the buses in the water has a D behind his name too).
It gets worse. After Landrieu calls the evacuations "the best" Wallace points out that 100 thousand people were left in the city. Landrieu has an answer for that: "One hundred thousand left in the city because this federal government won't support cities to evacuate people [in many crises]...That's the truth."
Yea, if you ignore the unused 450 metropolitan buses and the hundreds of school buses left parked below sea level, then it might be up to the federal government to get buses to rescue the people the state and city government have screwed. But that doesn't make it the federal government's failing or put any blame on it.
And we hear nothing but blame for FEMA, so here's some reality check.
Ask yourself, what is FEMA's purpose, that is, what is it supposed to accomplish after a natural disaster?
(hint: It's not the first responder, that necessarily must be local police and firemen, etc. and then the state national guard. It's the red cross and salvation army (among others) that comes next and FEMA is 3 or 4 days away with reinforcements and a lot of money).
Local wunderkind Jeff Goldstein (Protein Wisdom) has done some heavy lifting in a fisking of conventional lefty thinking (Newsweek article) about the efforts after Katrina. Good guy Jack Kelly (Irish Pennants) makes the case that the mainstream media and the Democrats (redundant) have portrayed it exactly wrong (like Tet during the Viet Nam war) and it was a federal government triumph portrayed as a total failure. I'm with Jeff and Jack
There's more to Landrieu's inability to answer easy questions truthfully.
Wallace points out that Bush gave more for levee construction and maintenance in his 5 years than the Clinton administration did in it's last 5 years. Landrieu rewrites history: "Number one, it is true that the President gave slightly more than Bill Clinton, but what is also true is that Bill Clinton was running the largest deficit created by the [prior two administrations]...President bush was running a surplus...."
Wrong! 180 degrees wrong. Wrong on both counts. As wrong as wrong can be. In the last five years of the Clinton administration, there was a surplus (not a deficit) and because of a recession Bush inherited and the damage the 9/11 attacks caused the economy, for most of the President's time in office, the spending has far outweighed the income.
I've asked it before and I'm sure I will again, how does this stupid woman get re-elected?
UPDATE: Landrieu twice used the weird phrase "less alone." I guess it means "much less" as in 'She didn't offer any ideas much less any good ones.' Must be a southerism with which I am unfamiliar. Didn't think there were too many of them.
Landrieu says, "I am not going to level criticism at the local level....I am not going to level criticism at local and state officials." She then goes on to level not just criticism but actual blame at George Bush. "This administration does not believe in mass transit. They won't even get people to work on a sunny day." When Wallace shows her the famous (to those of us on the right) pictures of hundreds of flooded school buses in New Orleans, Landrieu repeats, "Those buses were underwater." Wallace says twice that they weren't underwater on Saturday or Sunday [before Katrina hit]. Landrieu ignores him
You have to ask yourself, why won't she answer the question?
(hint: The person responsible for not using the buses in the water has a D behind his name too).
It gets worse. After Landrieu calls the evacuations "the best" Wallace points out that 100 thousand people were left in the city. Landrieu has an answer for that: "One hundred thousand left in the city because this federal government won't support cities to evacuate people [in many crises]...That's the truth."
Yea, if you ignore the unused 450 metropolitan buses and the hundreds of school buses left parked below sea level, then it might be up to the federal government to get buses to rescue the people the state and city government have screwed. But that doesn't make it the federal government's failing or put any blame on it.
And we hear nothing but blame for FEMA, so here's some reality check.
Ask yourself, what is FEMA's purpose, that is, what is it supposed to accomplish after a natural disaster?
(hint: It's not the first responder, that necessarily must be local police and firemen, etc. and then the state national guard. It's the red cross and salvation army (among others) that comes next and FEMA is 3 or 4 days away with reinforcements and a lot of money).
Local wunderkind Jeff Goldstein (Protein Wisdom) has done some heavy lifting in a fisking of conventional lefty thinking (Newsweek article) about the efforts after Katrina. Good guy Jack Kelly (Irish Pennants) makes the case that the mainstream media and the Democrats (redundant) have portrayed it exactly wrong (like Tet during the Viet Nam war) and it was a federal government triumph portrayed as a total failure. I'm with Jeff and Jack
There's more to Landrieu's inability to answer easy questions truthfully.
Wallace points out that Bush gave more for levee construction and maintenance in his 5 years than the Clinton administration did in it's last 5 years. Landrieu rewrites history: "Number one, it is true that the President gave slightly more than Bill Clinton, but what is also true is that Bill Clinton was running the largest deficit created by the [prior two administrations]...President bush was running a surplus...."
Wrong! 180 degrees wrong. Wrong on both counts. As wrong as wrong can be. In the last five years of the Clinton administration, there was a surplus (not a deficit) and because of a recession Bush inherited and the damage the 9/11 attacks caused the economy, for most of the President's time in office, the spending has far outweighed the income.
I've asked it before and I'm sure I will again, how does this stupid woman get re-elected?
UPDATE: Landrieu twice used the weird phrase "less alone." I guess it means "much less" as in 'She didn't offer any ideas much less any good ones.' Must be a southerism with which I am unfamiliar. Didn't think there were too many of them.
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 6:16 AM 
