Using The Huffington Post as his forum, presidential wannabe and sometime Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold seized the Katrina anniversary to score some political points with the Left.
Not surprisingly, The Huffington Post offers a plethora of pieces "celebrating" Katrina.
Feingold writes:
With the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina tomorrow, as so many Americans remember the horrifying images of the disaster, the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast will be dealing with reality they face today - that in a lot of neighborhoods it looks like a hurricane hit a week ago, not a year ago.
Over the past year, in my listening sessions in Wisconsin, I have heard from so many people upset with the federal government's response to Katrina and their emotional pleas to not forget about the people who lost their homes, their communities and their way of life.
I am so sick of Feingold using the people in Wisconsin to advance his presidential goal.
He's always blathering about his listening sessions, as if he has his hand on the pulse of Middle America.
What a load!
The fact is Feingold's "up to an hour" listening sessions in Wisconsin counties are more liberal, pro-Feingold political rallies than an exchange of ideas or challenges to his perspective.
I'd like Feingold to listen to me. I'd like to have a chance to express myself to the presidential candidate... I mean MY senator.
I would say that it's disingenuous to place blame for the disastrous response to Katrina SOLELY on the shoulders of the federal government.
I think Feingold knows that, which makes his statements that much more sleazy.
On a trip to New Orleans in July, the painful realities about life were everywhere - abandoned businesses, and homes and neighborhoods that were totally destroyed by the hurricane and its aftermath. The challenge of rebuilding is enormous. But what's even tougher is trying to rebuild in a way that helps everyone come back, not just people with access to lots of resources and lots of different options.Oooooh! Another Feingold plan!
There are so many ways that Gulf Coast communities still need help - creating jobs, rebuilding the school systems, and gutting damaged homes so that they can be rebuilt. But when you see those blocks and blocks of neighborhoods that were destroyed - with no sign of reconstruction - it's clear just how much help the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast need to find affordable housing.
Housing has to be affordable so that the Gulf Coast can get back to work. So many of the people who are the lifeblood of the tourism industry - like hotel and restaurant workers - want to call New Orleans home again, but they can't move back if they can't afford any place to live.
...We've got to do something to help displaced residents - particularly low-income people - who want to move back to New Orleans. I have put together a few different ideas into one bill, building on really good work on housing issues by some of my colleagues in the Senate. It doesn't tackle every problem, but it will help address some of the tough housing issues facing New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. It includes housing vouchers to help make rents affordable for the lowest income people and families. It also makes housing like the Katrina Cottages - which are more like homes, and less like trailers - more available to those who want them. There have been a lot of problems with the FEMA trailers, so it's important to give people the option of living in a more permanent home. And finally it allows HUD to handle temporary rental assistance programs from here on out, instead of FEMA, which isn't equipped to handle housing issues like these for the long haul.
He has all the answers, doesn't he?
If only Feingold were president, New Orleans would be a shining city by now.
...A year after Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, there is so much that we can still do - and that Congress can do -- to help the Gulf Coast recover. Looking ahead, we've got to reform the Army Corps of Engineers, which built the levees in the first place, to prevent this kind of tragedy from happening again. I'm really pleased that the Senate passed several Army Corps reform measures I wrote with Senator John McCain. But we also have to focus on the here and now -- what people are facing on the Gulf Coast today. As we look at the images of the hurricanes a year later, and we remember what people went through, we also have to recognize how far we have to go, and rededicate ourselves to helping the people of the Gulf Coast make it home again.
And so ends another of Feingold's presidential campaign speeches.
Nancy Pelosi's Huffington Post piece is even more shameless than Feingold's drivel.
"Anybody knows not to mess with me" Pelosi, Speaker of the House wannabe, employs a disgusting political opportunism as she reflects on Katrina.
She writes:
It's no secret that the Bush Administration values politics and press opportunities over policy. But the dichotomy between the White House media campaign marking the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the harsh reality Gulf Coast residents have been facing these past 12 months is unconscionable. President Bush has devoted more time and preparation to this public relations blitz than to helping the people of the Gulf Coast.
Yeah, right.
The President has spent more time preparing for his "public relations blitz" to the Gulf Coast than he has devoted to efforts aiding the hurricane's victims in the past year.
That is positively idiotic.
She charges Bush with exploiting Katrina when in reality SHE and FEINGOLD and their Dem cohorts are engaged in a massive propaganda campaign staged around the hurricane's anniversary.
In sum, it's disgraceful.
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