“No Man’s life liberty or property is safe while the legislature is in session”.

- attributed to NY State Judge Gideon Tucker



Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Wonderboy's Growing Damage From The Gulf Coast Oil Spill

Late in April, I wrote this post asking whether the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico would become Wonderboy's Katrina.

I wrote, in part,

"How much intelligence does it take to realize you should be mobilizing federal assistance instantly to try to minimize leakage from the well, and damage to the local environment?

This little faux pas should, hopefully, bring down Janet Napolitano, the current head of FEMA, and a few other Wonderboy cronies who were asleep on the job for the past nearly-two weeks."

It's gotten much worse for the First Rookie since then.

Karl Rove, among others, noted that Wonderboy's press conference last week, on the day that BP was trying to cap the well with its 'top hat' approach, was a calculated move to show leadership and command as BP succeeded in steming the flow of oil.

Unfortunately for the administration, as well as the Gulf Coast economy and environment, the BP approach didn't work.

Meanwhile, Republican governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindahl, came out swinging about how Wonderboy's administration dithered on various permits, wasn't responsive to requests for equipment and, generally, showed no responsiveness to the crisis.

Most people would probably have liked to see the federal government announce, early on, that it would accelerate necessary permitting processes, pay for whatever manpower and equipment was needed, authorize the locally-affected states to take charge and manage their efforts, and generally provide money and assistance as asked, leaving local management to local authorities.

If only.

Instead, Wonderboy's administration's first response was from the AG. But in terms of actual help, it's been way late. It has become clear that, over a year into his term of office, Wonderboy is not treating this apolitically as a crisis to handle, in concert with the states, but yet another campaign opportunity.

I believe the bulk of independent voters have seen enough, and no longer place any trust at all in this administration. Its response to the Gulf oil spill is just more evidence of the president's, and his administration's total lack of experience governing anything.

No comments: