( Rep. Richard Baker, La.)
I have been working on an analysis of the criminally delayed response of the Bush administration to the Katrina disaster. At one point I suggested that what accounted for this incompetence on the part of the current occupants of the White House - particularly compared with the speed with which they responded to the tragic situation of one woman, Terri Schiavo - was that in this case neither of the constituencies to which they pander - the rich corporate tycoons who finance them or the right-wing "Christians" who provide the electoral bodies - cared enough to alert Karl Rove. In other words, there was no right-wing fanatic like Randall Terry to get Rove to pack Bush on a plane to Washington to sign a mistakenly "life-saving" bill. Much the same can be said of the right-wing Republicans in Congress, who rushed to Schiavo's "defense."
I actually thought that many of these right-wing "Christian" leaders probably believe that Katrina was part of the "intelligent designer's" plan. And since no one told them to build an ark, they would stay out of it.
I have to admit that I didn't expect this weak attempt at humor to be proven "true" quite so soon. But according to "Democracy Now
,,, a number of Republican Congressmen have come under criticism in recent days for comments made about the hurricane.[for example], Congressman Richard Baker of Baton Rouge was overheard telling lobbyists 'We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did.'
In an attempt to clear up the seeming embarrassment of the original statement, Rep. Baker said on his website
what I remember expressing, in a private conversation with a housing advocate and member of my staff, was that 'we have been trying for decades to clean up New Orleans public housing to provide decent housing for residents, and now it looks like God is finally making us do it'.
Oh, of course, Mr. Baker, I see the difference.
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