Glenn Reynolds puts it best:
It’s as if all the Katrina concern was just political fakery.
It sure looks that way:
The economic stimulus signed by President Barack Obama will spread billions of dollars across the country to spruce up aging roads and bridges. But there’s not a dime specifically dedicated to fixing leftover damage from Hurricane Katrina.
And there’s no outrage about it.
Democrats who routinely criticized President George W. Bush for not sending more money to the Gulf Coast appear to be giving Obama the benefit of the doubt in his first major spending initiative. Even the Gulf’s fiercest advocates say they’re happy with the stimulus package, and their states have enough money for now to address their needs.
Suddenly they have enough money. Well, not according to this man:
Thomas Langston, a Tulane University political scientist, said Democrats may be “playing nice” to keep in good favor. But dire needs remain, he said.
“Hopefully they’ve gotten some promises behind the scenes about longer-term commitments,” Langston said. “Like most people down here, I would hate for anybody to get the impression that, ‘We’re good, thank you.'”
Hope and change?
Jules Crittenden offers spot on analysis regarding the news service who brought us this news article, the Associated Press:
Your go-to wire service for objective, just-the-facts Bush-bash, gently chiding the people whose water they’ve been carrying lo these many years. The one thing that is missing is an analyst or GOP type pointing out what flaming hypocrites the Dems have been, though there are a couple of diplomatic comments from a GOP rep turned lobbyist.
As for the AP and its own historic flaming hypocrisy, while this is a startling new direction, it hardly has the “when did you stop beating your wife” quality of the news agency’s average Bush coverage, and seems to be expressing more a sense of approval and relief at how reasonable everyone can afford to be now that you-know-who isn’t around to provoke an entirely understandable derangement.
