Kansas Governor Tries to Pull a Blanco and Nagin on Tornado
From Right Wing News we get this quote on the Governor of Kansas and her attempt to blame the Bush administration for not helping during the recent tornado:
Here’s a quote from a New York Times article on the attempt of Kathleen Sebelius to blame George Bush for her slow and incompetent response to a tornado in Kansas,
As State Senator Donald Betts Jr., Democrat of Wichita, put it: “We should have had National Guard troops there right after the tornado hit, securing the place, pulling up debris, to make sure that if there was still life, people could have been saved. The response time was too slow, and it’s becoming a trend. We saw this after Katrina, and it’s like history repeating itself.”
Now comes the observation of a Kansas resident courtesy of American Thinker:
Hi, my name is Tim Schieferecke and I’m a native western Kansas farmboy. No, I don’t know anyone from Greensburg as I’m from northwest Kansas, but I do know what rural folks from anywhere in Kansas are like. Apparently my current leftist Governor Kathleen Sebelius doesn’t though, nor does she comprehend the availability of heavy equipment assets.
It was hard for me to hold my lunch down when I heard her craft an anti-Bush spin on the disaster that befell the good people of Greensburg. Slow recovery? This statement is disingenuous at best but in local lingo better understood as a downright lie.
We need trucks? It seems the good Governor doesn’t get out of Topeka much. Western Kansas is wheat country, and where there’s wheat there’s wheat trucks. Incidentally, they fill in quite nicely for hauling away debris when they aren’t filled with grain. Why do they really need Hum-vees in the mix? What can they accomplish that a regular old four wheel drive pick-up can’t? Other equipment? You can’t spit without hitting a tractor, spit a little harder and you’ll hit one that has a handy scoop.As far as the people go, they are salt of the earth good people, regardless of race, class or creed in the country. Unlike certain areas affected by disaster, the people of Greensburg will take care of their current problems themselves. They will not wait for the government to do this or that, because in the country people still know what it means to be a good neighbor.
Growing up in this environment, I remember time after time the lessons my Dad taught me about being a good neighbor.
Neighbors in the country take care of each other. From helping a neighbor get cattle back in to helping harvest his wheat if he was ill, neighbors in the country do whatever they can for each other as well as for anyone who happens to have a vehicle breakdown while passing through. So it will be with Greensburg.
Also, I’d like the Governor to explain just how many National Guard troops it takes to seal off a little town of 1500 from looters? The good Governor points out plainly opportunistically that 40% of all troops overseas are National Guard. Now, assuming that 40% of Kansas troops are engaged elsewhere (that’s 3,200 of approximately 8,000 total, there are an estimated 4,800 troops available). To guard a town of 1,500? Do they have that many down on the border? That sounds like overkill to me!It is beyond me how these libs spin everything towards making our good President guilty of this or that. How is it that President Bush has anything at all to do with a slow response to the catastrophe? How could ANYTHING have been done differently. Oh yeah, I forgot, Bush created global warming by colluding with big oil, that created the perfect F-5 tornado, and if only he had signed Kyoto this tragedy never would have happened. Give me a break!
For once the Bush Administration got on this fib right away.
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco blamed the feds after the 2005 hurricane that devastated New Orleans. Now Kansas’ Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is doing the same.
It’s become a pattern: Democrats blaming President Bush for their own lack of disaster preparedness. Like Blanco in Katrina, Sebelius claims the federal response to the May 6 tornado that leveled the town of Greensburg was slow. She blames Bush’s deployment of Kansas National Guardsmen in Iraq.
“States all over the country are not only missing personnel,” she told CNN, “they don’t have the equipment they need to come in. And it will just make it that much slower.”
Fact is, she had 4,500 guard troops on call for this town of 1,600 if she needed them. She also had offers of help from other states for any resources Kansas asked for.
More than that, Kansas itself is full of resources — like farm equipment, along with private companies and citizen volunteers that can use them as effectively as any military equipment to clean up.
Worse, after Sebelius’ loud complaints, it turned out she hadn’t even asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency for help.
“If you don’t request it,” White House Spokesman Tony Snow noted, “you’re not going to get it.” That, by the way, is the law.
[...] Why were so few people killed in a tornado that destroyed 90% of the town? Unlike New Orleans, Greensburg’s 1,500 self-reliant residents used their 20-minute warning to find shelter.
That’s why it is they who see though Sebelius’ bid to blame Bush.
“The ‘poor response’ thing is just B.S.” a disgusted Greensburg resident, Mike Swigart, told WCBS TV. He cited a swift National Guard response, and fellow farmers who rushed in to help.
Nor were the Kansas residents clamoring for aid. Self-reliance, it seems, is an antidote to political opportunism from demagogues who would turn everyone into a victim. These Kansans knew hay from political hay. Maybe it’s time Sebelius did, too.
For politicians it’s easier to climb a tree to tell a lie than it is to stay on the ground and tell the truth.
HT: The Anchoress
Written by ~J~
Sue Says:
May 14th, 2007 at 10:42 amVisit Sue
I only wish Tony Snow would have been with the administration from the beginning. He is a wonderful communicator and I believe the message on a lot of issues would have been clearer.
It is to bad so many political figures are willing to compromise their intellect for the “good of the party.”
You do not have to like this administration or its policies but the “Blame Bush” phrase has gotten a bit old.