The gap between Katrina's landfall and the arrival of federal assistance? Conservatives defended it.

[marmar]

from OurFuture.org:


Katrina: the "federalist pause"
Submitted by Rick Perlstein on August 27, 2007 - 1:45pm.


That fatal gap between Katrina's landfall and the arrival of federal assistance? Conservatives defended it—on principle. In her September 1, 2005 Financial Times column she simultaneously implored the nation to foreswear partisanship, and gushed worshipfully about Bush's manful preparation and immediate response to the disaster.

Well, conservatives throw a lot of bovine fundament to the wall. This particular chunk didn't stick. So—on September 11!—she tried again. Of course the federal government's response was slow, she reassured her readers. George Washington wouldn't have had it any other way.

The critics are right on one point. There was hesitation. That hesitation at times represented incompetence. But it was also something else: what we might call the Federalist Pause.

The Federalist Pause is that little intake of breath, that clearing of the political throat that American leaders instinctively demonstrate before plunging forward. Mr Bush provided a classic demonstration of the pause last week when he considered invoking a little-known law, the Insurrection Act, to take over Louisiana – and chose not to, out of deference to the authority of Kathleen Blanco, the governor.

You disagree? What, do you hate George Washington? You're silently counting the rotting corpses that were already floating down streets during that delightful pause that refreshes? You cad. President Bush, that gentleman, was but "deferring" to Governor Blanco. But what: are you one of those pinkos angrily reflecting, "What happened to the Bush regime's vaunted 'unitary executive' theory, which doted upon 'the unity in purpose and energy in action that characterize the presidency' when it came to authorizing torture"? ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/katrina_federalist_pause?tx=3

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. And that was a Federalist Pause when Fuckstick kept reading...

and when Fuckstick waited a week to show up in NYC?

Is it a Federalist Pause that says to our troops, "You - go to Iraq! We'll send body armor and other things you need later. Maybe."?

Conservatives are shit.

[Selatius]

2. Thomas Jefferson said this:

If our house be on fire, without inquiring whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it.

-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Lewis, Jr., May 9, 1798.