- As Republicans desperately cry out of one corner of their
mouths to stop the blame game, they have been blaming everyone but themselves
since this catastrophe. Let's look at their ever-evolving buck-passing
strategies.
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- Blame the Victims: Both FEMA's Michael Brown and Homeland
Security's Michael Chertoff, the Mutt and Jeff of this calamity, have blamed
careless, destitute New Orleaners for not evacuating. "Those who got
out are fine," Chertoff told NBC's Tim Russert. FEMA sought to excuse
its delays in entering the city by blaming the looters.
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- Blame the Locals: In a stroke of political luck, both
the New Orleans mayor and Louisiana's Governor are Democrats. As the New
York Times reported, Karl Rove's PR strategy is to shift the blame to the
state and city officials. All Sunday, White House officials and Fox News
played this card. Expect more of this line of attack.
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- Blame the City: In perhaps the most bizarre excuse, Chertoff
pointed the finger the city of New Orleans itself, saying, "It is
a soup bowl. People have talked for years about whether it makes sense
to have a city like that."
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- Blame the Media: Last week, Brown blamed media coverage
for the perception that New Orleans had descended into lawlessness. "I
actually think security is darn good.... It seems to me that every time
a bad person wants to cause a problem, there's somebody with a camera to
stick in their face."
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- Look on the Bright Side: As Americans continued to drown,
Chertoff came up with this gem about the rescue efforts: "There were
some things that actually worked very well. There were some things that
didn't."
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- Ignoramus Defense: When FEMA's Brown, who was fired from
his last job overseeing Arabian horse shows, said he was as "surprised
as everybody else" to discover there were desperate people in the
New Orleans convention center, CNN Soledad O'Brien asked, "How is
it possible that we're getting better intel than you're getting?"
But it was left up to our physically fit President for the whopper of the
week: "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees."
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- It is likely this last defense will be scrapped for obvious
reasons. If only we could do the same to this Administration for painfully
obvious reasons.
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