LA Gov. Blanco says her greatest failure was not switching to Repub. after Katrina and Rita

[rudy23]

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070322/ELECTION/303220001

Blanco reflects on her decision against seeking re-election
Governor says she would have switched to GOP if it would have helped La. with storm recovery
March 22, 2007

By John Hill
[e-mail]

BATON ROUGE — Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, relaxed a day after dropping out of the gubernatorial race, said Wednesday her greatest failure as governor is not switching to the Republican Party in the days after hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

“When I look back at the storms, if I had had the knowledge that I would be treated as a pariah by the national Republicans in office, I would have joined the Republican Party to save my state,” Blanco quipped.

“Then I would have been hugged and kissed and lifted, and I would have been declared the best governor in this whole country,” Blanco said in an interview Wednesday at the Governor’s Mansion. “I wish I had realized that earlier. I think that was the fatal error.”

The governor has long maintained that Washington Republicans and the White House, in particular, sought to shift blame to her from President Bush for the federal government’s slow response following Hurricane Katrina. <snip>

[R_M]

1. Remind me again why I never voted for a Repubie.

and why I never will.

I understand what she was saying. This is not about her. It's about the dirty tricks of the GOP.

[depakid]

7. Remind me why I don't associate with Republicans period

It's a sign of either ignorance or bad character to support that party- neither of which I need in my life.

[SharonAnn]

30. Yes, that's like Bolton on TDS the other night saying that * had to cater to those who voted for him

Jon Stewart pointed that out the next night when he said he hadn't realized that * was the president of ONLY those who had voted for him, not the rest of us.

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

2. What A Fucking MORON!!

She would have switched to the party that treated her like a pariah?

She would have switched to the party that sought to shift blame from King george directly to her?

What a SUCK UP! I bet if she had been a Justice Dept. Attorney, she would have been a lap dog and prosecuted whatever cases they wanted also.

Bitch!

[malaise]

4. I think she's making a bigger point here n/t

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

8. Yeah....I Get Her Point....

Her point is if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Wonderful. So, if she had sold out and been a repub Zombie, then it would have helped LA. Great.

Why don't we all just become repubs then, so everybody can get along and move things through. Sounds like a plan to me.

[Der Blaue Engel]

17. No, you don't get her point

Her point is: fuck you, you fucking Republicans!

[salin]

47. No - I think it is a d*mning indictment of national repubs (bushco)

that they care not a whit about american citizens but only about the party of the local political leader. Her words sound like 'I would have done *anything* to get the help to my state... even *that*' ala holding ones nose for that last statement.

[Rockholm]

49. Please.

She was being sarcastic.

[Forkboy]

53. The post went way over your head.

[Joe Chi Minh]

5. You missed the word, "quipped". Her statement was meant as the

blackest of black humour. Sarcasm to the nth degree.

[left is right]

13. I guess I misinterpreted her meaning

I took her to mean that had she been a Repuke, New Orleans wouldn't still be in a sorry state of disrepair. Her being a repuke would have brought the same aid that Texas got after Rita--the food and water would have gotten through. I saw this as an indictment against the Repukes helping only their own.

[pnwmom]

14. Why? Because she would have sacrificed her own goals to help her state?

She's making the point that the Republican governors and states were treated far better than the Democratic ones. And that this was deliberate.

[KingFlorez]

16. She was trying to make a point

She was making the point that Katrina has been handled by the federal government in a partisan manner. That's what she was trying to say.

[Kurovski]

44. And she did it extremely well.

It was a total smack down of some horrifically corrupt people in a dangerously corrupt party.

[DemExpat]

46. Really an excellent smackdown!

It took my breath away when I first read it!

What a woman!


DemEx

[Clark2008]

21. She's being sarcastic!

[Maddy McCall]

28. She would have shifted to SAVE HER PEOPLE.

Because the Bush administration was "playin politics" with the very lives of people by ignoring the Democratic-headed Louisiana in favor of the Republican-headed Mississippi.

[MnFats]

29. just hyperbole. she's not actually saying she would have gone over...

...she is saying 'look how they fucked us over because we belong to the WRONG party.

my guess is she would not be a Repub with a gun to her head.....there is one former office-holder who detests the GOP, now and forever.

[jobycom]

37. Don't feel bad, you aren't the first DUer to completely miss sarcasm

We've all done it. Hopefully you've reread Blanco's statements by now and seen what she was saying. She was blasting the Republicans, not saying she would have switched parties.

[Kelly Rupert]

39. Yes, you are. n/t

[qwlauren35]

50. I don't see how you can say that.

She wanted to save her state and bring in the necessary funds.

And to do that, she believes a "sacrifice" would have made a difference.

And that makes her a MORON????

Wow.

There are plenty of people who have capitulated after having their businesses bombed and given a chunk of their profits to the mafia for "protection". Are they MORONS? Or pragmatists?

There are plenty of people who don't have enough money to be picky about whether they shop at Wal-mart. Are they MORONS?

There have been women since time began who became prostitutes to feed their families. They are not MORONS. They are pragmatists. And maybe you need to think about it that way. Even if it disgusts you, it doesn't make her stupid.

[Little Wing]

51. Went right over your head, didn't it.

It's okay :hug:

[jmowreader]

52. I understand what she was saying, and it's not that

It's fairly apparent to all that Bush took a colossal dump on Louisiana to make the Democratic Party look bad.

New Orleans' mayor, and Louisiana's governor, were both Dems. And Governor Blanco wouldn't allow her state to be federalized.

Therefore Bush did such wonderful things as restricting aid from entering NOLA, diverting firefighters who volunteered to assist in the Katrina cleanup to Florida for "training" (and then sending them to Louisiana to serve basically as greeters), and lavishing aid and attention on Mississippi, which had a Republican governor.

If Louisiana would have had a Republican governor, they might have received the help they needed. Hence Blanco's comment that if she would have realized Bush was going to shaft her state due to her party affiliation she would have changed it.

It's not like it would make a hell of a lot of difference in her politics--a Southern Democrat and a Northern Republican look a lot alike.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. 'Tis a pity politics plays with people's lives?

[Gato Moteado]

6. oh sure, why don't we all just switch to repubs

great idea. then the whole country can agree on everything. and there will be nobody to shift the blame to.

great idea blanco......NOT!

instead of being such a woos, you should have been attacking bushco from day one, exposing their lack of concern for new orleans before and after katrina. every dem needs to grow a spine and start hammering bushco and the filthy, corrupt repuke party. they should have started calling for impeachment in january of 2001 and never stopped.

hey dems, now that you have control of both houses, start smashing repubs. smash them until they lay bleeding and beg you to stop. and then keep smashing them. they are nazis, pure and simple. they are the enemy of freedom. don't empower nazis, smash them.

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

12. Exactly!!

"It would be a whole lot easier if this was a dictatorship, so long as I was the dictator."

Everything would be fine if we were all repubs. LOL.

[Raksha]

9. She's right.

“When I look back at the storms, if I had had the knowledge that I would be treated as a pariah by the national Republicans in office, I would have joined the Republican Party to save my state,” Blanco quipped.

“Then I would have been hugged and kissed and lifted, and I would have been declared the best governor in this whole country,” Blanco said in an interview Wednesday at the Governor’s Mansion. “I wish I had realized that earlier. I think that was the fatal error.”

Would ANY Republican have the gall to deny this?

[sandnsea]

10. Don't forget to give Mary a thunk on the head

I don't think she gets it either. Better late than never for Blanco I guess.

[AndyA]

11. Um, OK, Kathleen. Whatever.

I guess I can understand the thought process behind her statement, but to willingly join a party that she obviously finds offensive is going a bit far. I guess in the big scheme of things, it would have been a rather selfless thing to do, but it really sheds light on the sad state of affairs when America has become so politicized that innocent citizens are penalized and allowed to suffer and die just because their representatives are from the "wrong" political party.

And why is it Bush and Cheney aren't being impeached again?

[Der Blaue Engel]

15. That "whooshing" sound you hear is the sarcasm going over people's heads

;)

[ccpup]

18. I just busted out laughing.

I suspect there are some on DU that have been sippin' the stupid juice today and -- regardless of good intentions -- are so eager, so ready, so hungry to attack, attack, attack that they couldn't WAIT to pounce on what they perceived as a slight to the Dems and a tilt to the Repugs.

But, yeah, I agree with you: sarcasm and stupid juice don't often go together. Whoosh!

[rudy23]

19. No kidding. nt

[frylock]

23. make it stop!

reading comprehension, people. :eyes:

[rudy23]

20. This is a jibe in reference to the red carpet that was rolled out for Haley Barbour in MS

and when it came out that Lieberman wasn't going to investigate the Katrina response, Brownie came out the next day and said that it was because Bushco had made a pointed effort to pin the blame on LA's female democratic governor.

[Neecy]

22. Blanco is absolutely right about this

Bravo to her for saying it - it's time people woke up and realized that under Bush/Rove, it's *always* about politics and *never* about the American people.

[boston bean]

24. Dear god people, she was being facetious, sarcastic! Get it, get over yourselves! nt

[Disturbed]

27. Wasn't the Busholini Regime trying to force her to

allow the Fed. National Guard to take over the area? Did she not refuse ?

[Hav]

25. .

Wow, it was actally pretty powerful (if people had any interest in what she tried to say).
It seems to me that this was a way to deal with all the frustration during these years. And it's not even solely about her or her political career, so many in the state had to suffer and seeing that every day must have really gotten to her.
Good for her.

[Maddy McCall]

26. She's right. I saw it firsthand here in Mississippi.

She was demonized. Pigboy was lauded. She is a Democrat. He is a Republican.

It's pretty easy to understand. She is right.

[Marie26]

31. She's totally right

From the Plame scandal, to the US attorneys, to Katrina, the Bush Ad. has made it clear that party loyalty trumps EVERYTHING with them.

[Danger Mouse]

32. Very powerful statement.

Well said.
But very sad.

[AnnInLa]

33. I've heard her say that before, here, on local TV

She thinks that as a Republic, Haley Barbour got everything he needed, and in timely fashion. As a Democrat, she was ignored, maligned, and attacked. She thinks Louisiana suffered because she is a Democratic governor. I think she is right. She was a good governor. A good governor. A good governor.

[rudy23]

34. Oh, I don't think she was good at all...but I don't think * did her any favors either

I'm glad she's not running again.

[Hippo_Tron]

35. My thoughts exactly

[WritersBlock]

36. I still maintain that's the reason the parishes in the FEMA declaration were reversed deliberately.

Or at least part of it.

I feel like an old dog that just won't give up a bone here, but damnit, I truly believe they did it on purpose. Whether or not it was because of Blanco's party affiliation, or because of the opportunity to turn a blue city red, or both reasons, they did it.

They were subtle about it, but they did it.

And although it didn't cause *all* of the problems New Orleans suffered, it damn sure didn't help all those people in the Superdome & the rest who needed help getting out in the first days after the storm.



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2898023#2901390

(edit for grammar, or rather, the lack thereof)

[misanthrope]

41. Here's the real kicker...

...The folks in Mississippi didn't get what they needed, they just think they did.

There are plenty of people from Biloxi to Bay St. Louis still struggling with the aftermath of Katrina. As many of them have been left in the lurch as were in Louisiana, but their governor, state politicos and other spin-meisters have those people believing they are better off than Louisianans.

[jobycom]

38. Geeze. Some DUers need lessons on how to spot sarcasm.

Not to mention on how to tell friends from enemies.

[Kelly Rupert]

40. It's why we have that pathetic, hand-holding "Sarcasm" tag.

I like to imagine these people at parties, staring intently after someone tells a joke, not laughing, not responding. Someone whispers in their ear, "Hey. That was a joke," at which point they burst out laughing.

[w4rma]

42. Gov. Blanco rocks. (nt)

[Bluebear]

43. ATTENTION readers: Imagine one of the "sarcasm" emoticons over Blanco's heads, OK?

Sheesh.

[cooolandrew]

duplicate '' redacted''

[cooolandrew]

45. I can understand the theory, but it's not worth sinking that low for the help of thugs.

Mark Krispin Miller calls it right, Democrats really suffer battered wife syndrome after years of being pushed around.

[Bridget Burke]

48. Can you understand Sarcasm?

Perhaps too many people haven't had their morning coffee....

[Forkboy]

54. As I just said in another thread,the left is a humorless bunch in general.

And after seeing some people in this thread pull a muscle from such a fast kneejerk reaction just verifies that thought.