From Roll Call:
Citing what he said was a “history†of public corruption in Louisiana and the “abysmal failure†of current state officials to respond to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) on Wednesday urged Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) to prevent local politicians from controlling any part of the billions of federal disaster relief dollars slated for the state.
Tancredo’s heart is in the right place—I honestly believe that—but sometimes his mouth, well, it sprints when what it really should be doing is putting on that navy blue jogging suit it bought at Ross and taking a fast walk twice around the mall, then enjoying a refreshing iced tea and a cheese blintz with the rest of the seniors.
Metaphorically speaking, I mean.
(h/t Townhall’s C-Log)
He certainly says what’s on his mind rather than what’s politically savvy.
He would be better served if he proposed a committee to review and oversee the disbursements of federal dollars. Because in Washington committees can and do solve everything. The fact that there are already agencies in place to audit these things is beside the point.
HE IS NOT AN ANIMAL!
Wouldn’t refusing to provide taxpayer money through all knowning, all-generous federal government to Louisiana also be ANTI-CANNIBALISTIC
Sounds like another form of Republican discrimination against people who eat other people, or even corpse
“Metaphorically speaking.”
Mmmm, I so enjoy metaphor, especially when it speaks.
(Ha! Turing word: husband.)
Then again, copies of “All the King’s Men” for everyone on the allocation committee might not be a bad idea.
UP YOURS JOBU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
oy vey lol God, I think I might sort of agree with him, especially since Ms. Blanco has started her little group to keep all LA money under her control. Wonder if she’s worded it so she gets to keep her pinkie in even after the recall election?
lol–word is property lol
What is it with you and cheese blintzes, anyway?
As a former 6 year resident of the Pelican State with a bride who spent her entire life there, I think he’s right on target. I see nothing wrong with keeping money away from those who have a proven track record of stealing/misusing it.
Don’t get me wrong; I dearly love the place, but for those of you who have never lived there, corruption, graft, bribery and theft is the unofficial state sport. People there have joked about it for years upon years, and given a wink and nod to their dirty little secret. Everyone – and I mean everyone – who meets the minimum residency requirement knows that Louisiana state politicians have their hands in the till, or in the case of former Governor Edwin Edwards, the little hall table. The closer you get to Baton Rouge, the thicker it gets. Huey P may have come out of Winnfield, but he found many willing partners in the Florida and Acadiana parishes for his corruption machine; a machine which was so successful that his direct family and political descendants were in power until well into the ‘80s (some would argue they still are).
When the water goes down and the mud is washed off this sad episode, the truth is going to look very ugly to the rest of the country. Money for levees diverted to casinos is only the tip of it. To my mind, folks have no idea what passes for “normal” down there, nor have they ever wanted to know. As long as the “Hurricanes” were flowing freely at Pat O’s and the hookers were in abundance it was “Bon Ton Roule!” Most of us never had to live down there at the bottom of the river. We just visited for the annual conventions and ventured out on Bourbon Street for a few nights of watching our wives, or better yet, someone else’s wife, flash their tits for some beads before flying back to our Midwest lives. But the poor have always been there. They’ve always lived in places like the 9th Ward. They’ve always washed the streets and ironed the sheets at the hotels and cleaned the offices. They have always cooked our food and carried our bags at the airport. And we have always tipped them and made moronic jokes about how we learned to say, “NAW-lins” like the locals (who really say “New-awlins” by the way) and how we sucked da head off a crawfish. They just smiled and thought what asses we were. But the tourist money was really needed…so they just kept smiling. We never gave a second thought to the poverty they lived in down there, or what was and wasn’t being done by their government to improve the lives of so many who came to spend those lives as wards of the state. Those tax dollars we sent down there just disappeared and we were none the wiser. No, we were too concerned with spotted owls, poly-unsaturated fats, Miami Vice and mutual funds to worry about a bunch of eccentric Creoles. We never stopped to think about the lack of “rags to riches” stories coming out of the Big Easy. Now we look at our TVs and we wonder how it all could have gone so wrong. Well folks, there it is; that’s what happens when a state abandons through neglect those who have come to depend on it. Should they themselves have said something? Probably. But when that’s all they really have ever genuinely known, I say their position in the blame line is way, way, way in the back.
To my mind, impeaching Nagin, jailing Blanco and hanging (for real) a few NOPD looters would be a great start to changing things down there. What a shame it would be to put real effort into rebuilding New Orleans just so we could all go back to Bourbon Street. There are more pressing priorities in the Crescent City.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to go on so long, but I guess it’s been bothering me. So there you have it, for whatever it’s worth.
I don’t disagree with Tancredo, either. I just don’t think now is the time for such, uh, candor…
Cardinals, I think you’re right in part: Tancredo’s probably right that the best thing would be to keep the money out of the hands of Nagin and blanco (if Blanco had any sense, she’d abscond to Brazil with it before people catch on in New Orleans about the Red Cross thing anyway).
On the other hand, as someone who is occasionally active in Republican Party politics in Colorado, I’d say that the real problem is that Tancredo is as smart as serving shit sandwiches at a campaign cocktail party.
Blitz? Or Blintz?
SB: alone
naturally.
Five word or less review: Reptillicus, 1961
Ed Wood does Godzilla
SB: needed
Reptillicus – A Scandanavian cinematic triumph!
Cardinal Nation: You’re absolutely right.
I think it’s nice that somewhere in America a fool with a splash of common sense can still manage to get elected. Things haven’t slid so far down the Hill as I had thought.
The secret word is: Anything; as in “Anything is better than another Cynthia McKiney.”
I wish we had one to run for Tancredo’s district.
Gotta disagree. Tommy the Tank has already cemented his reputation as a shoot-from-the-mouth kinda guy, so he might as well just go with it. He might even get lucky if it suddenly becomes popular—there are a lot of old timers here in Colorado who strongly prefer plain speaking.
I came to this thread to say something very similiar to what Cardinals wrote. I am not from Louisianna, but grew up right across the river in Mississippi, and went to college with about 5000 students from New Orleans. Through spending time with them and their families I’ve come to know the area quite well. Cardinals could not be more correct, and said it better than I ever could. Its a dirty little secret, and not PC to say it, but Tancredo and those who voted with him are absolutely correct. The right thing is not always popular or easy. And dumping billions of dollars into the laps of the well-connected few who have been growing rich off of graft and corruption for generations is definately not the right thing to do.
How the heck would Hastert know who to pay off?