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Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Hillary, wrong; Santorum, not so wrong
Hillary Clinton is pushing legislation to move FEMA out from under the Homeland Security Department:
Clinton, D-N.Y., is pushing legislation to take FEMA back out of the Department of Homeland Security, one of a number of signals a political fight is brewing over what many complain has been a bungled government response to Hurricane Katrina.
There might be sound policy reasons to keep FEMA separate from DHS. We just invested billions in consolidating functions within DHS. If it's truly a bad idea, we ought to ignore the sunk costs and transition back. But we spent months and millions studying how to prepare the country for disaster. The failure to respond to this disaster demands change -- but we need to determine the failures and the cause of those failures before we take drastic action.
In the end, Clinton might be right that FEMA should be divorced from DHS. But we need to investigate the issue before we act.
Rick Santorum is chock full of bad ideas. This is not his worst idea, but it is the worst-timed idea:
You have people who don't heed those, those, uh, those warnings, and then put people at risk as a result of uh, not, uh heeding those warnings. So there may be a need to look at tougher penalties, candidly, on those who decide to ride it out and and and understand that there are consequences to not leaving.
Some large percentage of those able to leave the path of Katrina evacuated. Some large percentage of those who remained were either physically or financially unable to get out. Between the two was the group of well-intentioned people who stayed to care for friends, neighbors, and loved ones who couldn't evacuate.
You add up those three groups and you don't quite get to 100%. Some group of people stuck it out because they thought they were tough or had been through a hurricane before or couldn't be bothered or were just idiots. There's at least one guy in New Orleans who stuck around because he didn't want to fight the traffic. That's the guy -- I assume -- Santorum is talking about. That guy needs to get the message that when it's time to leave the city, it's time to leave the city.
For now, at least, I'm not going to call this one of Santorum's all-time worst ideas, but I will reserve the right to change my mind as new information comes in. It is, to be sure, one of his worst-timed ideas, which is still quite an accomplishment.
6 Comments:
What about the politicians who fail to take repeated warnings about hurricane disaster seriously? Should they face increased penalties?
cp
By 
, at
11:46 AM
I think if we do a thorough job of investigating this tragedy we will find a number of politicians and appointees who utterly failed at their jobs. They should face the highest possible penalties.
I agree, politicians who sat on their hands all through this crisis should be prosecuted.
Santorum has spewed out so much shit during his career, his latest comment doesn't even stand out.
By 
Tom Harper, at
2:37 PM
A prediction: No politician or political appointee will face the least bit of penalty. The worst offenders, like Mike Brown, will receive Presidential Commendations.
By , at
4:48 PM
Cynic! Or maybe just a realist.
Per the Daily Show, Mike Brown will be dipped in bronze in order to become a medal to award to Chertoff.
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