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September 05, 2005
Judgement Call
Ever watched the wheels fall off of someone's career before, all based on recurring displays of poor judgement? I'm getting that sense this week watching Speaker Dennis Hastert. First, he suggests bulldozing New Orleans, setting off a firstorm of criticism. Then, he skips out on the vote to provide $10.5 billion in emergency funding for New Orleans. Then, he defends the reasons why he wasn't there, with a make-it-worse kind of response. And all of it is piling up to make the man look as incompetent as a FEMA director.
First of all, regarding his statement about New Orleans, my criticism there isn't as much with what he said as the lack of judgement he used in saying it when he did. Let's face it: after the tragedy of New Orleans subsides (and let's not forget that Mississippi was actually hit worse), we're all going to have to take a long look at how/if to rebuild the city. This disaster was one everyone saw coming, due to New Orleans being built in a bathub, basically... and not even a perfect response from FEMA could have changed the fundamental and inherent problem of building a city below sea level and next to the sea.
Walter Maestri led the emergency reponse team in Jefferson Parish back in 2002, and he told PBS something during a special that year that rings true today: "And if I'm the Senator from South Dakota or North Dakota or wherever, you know, am I going to want to vote the kind of massive funding that it's going to take to rebuild it, given the fact that nobody can promise me that it's not gonna happen again two weeks later."
It's a fair question to ask. Because as a citizen, while I want my tax money to be used to do everything possible to alleviate the suffering of the people there now, I'm not sure I want it used to rebuild everything is the exact same place so we can wait for this to happen again. The fact that Hastert was so impolitic in his word choice doesn't negate the basic validity of his point. BUT - this is not the kind of thing that the third most powerful person in the US government ought to be saying while people are dying and suffering in New Orleans. You don't tug on Superman's cape, you don't spit into the wind, you don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger, and you don't kick people when they're down if you're a politician with pretensions of national leadership. Hastert is supposed to have a better sense of timing; it's unfortunate that he did not.
But where Hastert went from unfortunate to indefensible was in his actions while the rest of Congress was acting to try and relieve the city by passing $10.5 billion in relief aid.
But there was one problem: Hastert was not in Washington, D.C. He was in Indiana attending a colleague's fund-raiser, staff members said, and he later attended an antique-car auction. By 4 p.m., Hastert had reached the Capitol, eager to explain his tardiness and to try again to show his solidarity with Katrina's victims.
The Indiana fundraiser, he told reporters, had been on his schedule "for a long, long time."
Mudge sez: You know, Denny, I'm pretty sure that there were a lot of things that had been on the schedules of people in New Orleans for a long, long time. Guess what? They had to change their plans because a disaster happened. It's galling to think that anyone who calls himself a leader could actually make a choice that raising money to get another like-minded individual elected to Congress is more important than saving lives and taking urgent action to alleviate catastrophic suffering after a disaster in America.
"Yes, I went to a charity auction," Hastert said. "I took one of my cars and sold it for tens of thousands of dollars. And that money will go to hurricane-relief efforts."
And some of my best friends were hurricane victims, Hastert might as well have said. I wasn't there to direct the body I in theory lead, as it directed billions of your taxpayer dollars toward emergency assistance. I was selling one of my cars or tens of thousands of dollars. And I personally am in that way donating to hurricane relief efforts. Never mind that I wasn't there to do my job by voting for billions in relief; I gave tens of thousands of dollars myself.
Even in an era where the leadership of this country gives daily demonstrations of hubris, Hastert stands out this week.
Comments
Hastert was at the antique car auction in Auburn, IN that is held every Labor Day & Memorial Day weekends. Leno goes there too. I used to live in Auburn is how I know.
Love the Jim Croce in your post.
Posted by: Marine's Girl at September 5, 2005 04:50 PM
Get your ass in gear Hastert....Even Fredo left his vacation two days early but you don't see him complaining do you?
The sad thing is, these comments go generally unnoticed as the criticism is directly on Fredo...
And I said to that...GOOD! Fuck Bush!
Posted by: Corey at September 6, 2005 12:30 AM
