What is it about establishment Republicans and their consultants that make them rush to accept blame for problems caused by decades and decades of liberal ruination by Democrats?
Seriously, this is a pattern among the GOP establishment types. Another pattern is how it always turns out. Badly. Very badly.
The biggest example of this in modern times was the George W. Bush administration’s rush to fall on their swords over the massive problems in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. This not only sealed a disastrous election result in the 2006 mid terms for Republicans (yes, there were other factors too) – it came back to haunt Mitt Romney in 2012.
Remember, the hug between Chris Christie and Barack Obama on the tarmac after Super Storm Sandy was significant because it reinforced the idea that Democrats are wizards of storm response while Republicans are buffoons. Thank you Governor Krispy Kreme.
We will get around to Governor Snyder and Flint, but it’s important to establish this pattern first.
Keep in mind that the City of New Orleans owns much of the blame because that city has been run by Democrats for a long time. Mayor “School Bus” Nagin is so named because of his incompetence in the face of withering advice to evacuate the city ahead of the storm. While thousands of citizens suffered after being trapped by flood waters, hundreds of New Orleans buses sat high and dry and un-used – because Nagin thought Greyhound should have performed the evacuation and paid for it as well. Yes he did. You can’t make this stuff up.
Does anyone still remember that? It all is true.
Meanwhile, it was Democrat Governor Kathleen Blanco who refused to allow the Bush Administration to move federal troops in until it was too late. Bush has been chastised for this, but our system of government has a name for federal troops moving into a sovereign state without being asked: illegal invasion.
CNN knew all this, and spiked the story. You know CNN, that blatant Republican bastion.
Thus, since the main issues blamed on the Bush Administration were around the handling of the looting and the clean up and the evacuations after the levees had failed – it is extremely important to figure out who didn’t evacuate and why – and who didn’t let the cavalry in on time?
Here’s who. Democrats, and bureaucrats – entrenched in the cubicles that run New Orleans, the State of Louisiana, not to mention FEMA, for decades. Speaking of bureaucrats and Louisiana corruption, lost in the media coverage was the fact that Category 5 Katrina had weakened to a Cat 3 by landfall.
Shhh. Don’t let that get around.
Now a Cat 3 is still a major storm, but the taxpayer purchased levees constructed to protect New Orleans were specked out to withstand a Cat 3. They did not. The levees failed and were breached by a storm their builders promised they would handle. They were not topped by a Cat 5 storm beyond their specs.
Corruption in the bid process anyone? There was this issue of $99,000 in cold cash (literally) which was found in the freezer of area Congressman William Jefferson. Oops. He’s not a Republican either.
To sum it up, it was disastrous, not to mention incorrect, for the Bush/Rove team to gracefully take all the blame. And yet, they did, and this capitulation of reality hurt all conservatives in 2006 and 2012 – and who knows – may yet come back to haunt in 2016 if there is another fall hurricane somewhere and some whore Governor can kiss up to Obama for federal cash.
Which brings us to Governor Snyder of Michigan and the Flint Water crisis. Flint, like nearby Detroit and most of this area of Michigan, has also been run by liberal Democrats and their cronies for many, many decades. The water issue in Flint, like all issues in Flint, have been under Democrat control almost forever.
There is not a single Republican or conservative who has anything to do with this. There hasn’t been a conservative government action in this part of the country since maybe the 1950s.
It is not an excuse to say so. It is the truth.
In fact, Ted Cruz said so in the Detroit debate – wisely pointing out the decades of liberal control in the Flint area were at the root of this and in fact all the problems plaguing this once great stronghold of free market capitalism – and area that is now third world in many ways.
As in their water supply.
Unfortunately, none of the other Presidential candidates could answer the question correctly, and neither can Governor Snyder. In his state of the state address days after the crisis became known, Snyder said “I’m sorry, and I will fix it.”
Unfortunately he was not done, adding and groveling “I’m sorry most of all that I let you down. You deserve better. You deserve accountability. You deserve to know that the buck stops here with me. Most of all, you deserve to know the truth, and I have a responsibility to tell the truth.”
What is the line from Frank Underwood about weak politicians and their inner desire to fall on their swords? It applies to Snyder. I could almost see Kevin Spacey impaling him.
Not done, Snyder sniveled “no citizen of this great state should endure this kind of catastrophe. Government failed you — federal, state and local leaders — by breaking the trust you place in us.”
Now not only is Snyder misguided here, he is dead wrong. It was not the Federal or State government that failed Flint. It was the local government. And the citizens of that great state who suffered were the same citizens who have been voting liberal clowns into power for decades.
Moreover, this act of phony contrition has been an exploding cigar politically as well. Snyder was raked over the coals by Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in the most recent Democrat debate. It will be an ad in his reelection campaign and the Presidential race in Michigan in 2016. And he just wrote the damned talking points for the Democrats.
This is the Republican establishment way. Grovel. Fall on your sword. Invest in false nobility. Is it any wonder that the Republican establishment is less relevant and powerful today than, perhaps, ever? Is it any wonder that the top two candidates in the Presidential primary race are one guy who never admits fault for anything – and another guy who was bold enough to lay the blame where it belongs on national TV.
No, it’s no wonder at all.
Edmund Wright is a contributor to Breitbart, American Thinker, Newsmax TV, Talk Radio Network and author of several books including WTF? How Karl Rove and the Establishment Lost…Again. This is installment 16 of Rove-Stupid: The New Definition of the Republican Establishment. See the rest here.
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