Jimmy Carter Comes Through
By Mark on Hurricane Katrina
Decision '08
It’s always been hard for me to be too critical of Jimmy Carter; as presidents go, he was pretty lousy. He’s also said some really ridiculous things, and has been on the wrong side of too many foreign policy issues. Yet and still, he’s a living former President of the United States. That means something…I was brought up to respect the office of the President, and to give the President my support in all but the most extraordinary circumstances, regardless of party affiliation, particularly when the going gets tough.
Why the patriotic preamble? Because, I’m happy to say that for once, my support of Carter is unqualified, after he made this most welcome contribution to the Katrina debate:
Ten days after it was known that an extraordinary storm
was approaching the Gulf Coast, the ravages of the
hurricane and the human suffering have still not been
adequately addressed. This is not a time for partisan
recriminations, because the clear threats to New Orleans
have been recognized and analyzed for decades, and no
adequate preventive or corrective action has been planned
or funded.
That’s an extraordinarily clear statement that puts a dagger right through the heart of the anti-Bush conspiracists who were so certain that Katrina spelled the doom of the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Oh, sure, Jimmy being Jimmy, he goes on to talk about global warming, the need to retain the estate tax, blah, blah, blah…but it hardly matters, because with that single statement, he has shamed the Kossacks, the Huff’n'Puffers, the Reids and Pelosis…they’ll pretend they didn’t hear or didn’t know, but they heard; they know…the game is up; the tide has been turning against them since the initial crisis passed, and now they stand exposed as naked partisans, recklessly conspiring against their political opponents in a time of great national sorrow and need.
A question for Howard Fineman: do you still think Bush’s whole second term is down the tubes? Must be some good stuff you’re smoking…
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