Polimom Says

Politicizing disaster

Jesum. Hurricane Gustav — currently a Cat 4 and anticipated to grow to a Cat 5 before slamming into the Gulf Coast as a Cat 4 or 3 again — is already becoming a political football. And we’re still a good solid 2 days from landfall.
Here’s TalkLeft, firing at the right:

President Bush has already declared Louisiana a state of emergency. Now that Louisiana has a popular Republican governor in an election year, it has the president’s attention.

Baloney. I have absolutely zero warm fuzzy feelings for George W. Bush, but I seriously doubt Bobby Jindal’s political affiliation has anything whatsoever to do with how Gustav preparations are unfolding.
The current governor could be a Socialist, and this would look the same at this moment in time. It has nothing to do with who’s at the helm in Louisiana right now. It has everything to do with the catastrophic, pathetic lack of coordination before Katrina — a truly outstanding bipartisan effort.
And not to be outdone by their opposites, here’s somebody at RedState:

So you see, it’s funny. That New Orleans will get a hurricane. That’s funny because it is due to hit when President Bush is scheduled to speak. Isn’t that cool? Fowler isn’t the only one who thinks so, just ask Michael Moore.
We all know Democrats used and use Katrina as a political football as callously as possible. Here’s a candid moment showing some can hardly wait for another one.
All Class.

Class, of course, is easily recognized by this author, who has demonstrated his lack thereof by surreptitiously recording someone else’s conversation on an airplane, in hopes of capturing something — anything — which can be spewed into the blogosphere to further politicize our already toxic climate.
No, the Democratic chortles at the poor timing of Gustav for the Republicans isn’t classy either. But that hardly elevates the discourse.
Meanwhile, of course, while all these fools are firing darts at one another, there’s a hurricane coming…
Added:  Like Bush, John McCain also learned something in 2005, it seems.