This is worse, much much worse. From a website promoting Anti-Obama and Anti-Democratic Party rants, Republicans in general, the Tea Party Movement and Conservative politicians comes one of the worst examples of political opportunism over the disaster in Haiti I’ve seen to date.
It seems several Florida Republican Candidates issued a press release extolling their efforts to provide relief to Haiti. Pretty standard stuff, I expect, considering how the Haitian community in Florida is a not insignificant voting bloc. If those Republican candidates for office want to publicize their efforts to obtain humanitarian relief for the devastated populace of Haiti, fine by me.
No, what I found execrable, especially in light of the massive aid effort to which have President Obama and his administration committed the United States and have already begun to implement, was this little preamble the people at Annuit Coeptis chose as a lead in to their re-publication of those candidates press release:
This shows how Republicans are once again the party of action and compassion, while the Democrats are the party of wanton neglect and disregard. Aside from the on-the-spot effort planned and coordinated last night by Bernard, Tom and myself, the only three congressmen to express concern were our three Republican members from Miami. This should demonstrate how Democrats once again pander to and use minorities to further their ends and throw them under the bus in the time of need. The D now stands for Desolate Destruction while the R stands for Repair, Renew and Reinvigorate.
These people really have no shame, do they? They will take any issue, even a humanitarian tragedy that clearly should have not become a political football and attempt to turn it to their advantage. If Obama promises all the aid and resources of the US Government to help Haiti recover from this catastrophe then, according to Limbaugh, he is doing it merely to garner favor with “light and dark skinned” African Americans.
If Republican candidates issue a press release about their attempt to organize an effort to help NGO’s providing relief to Haiti, however, it proves that “Republicans are … the party of action and compassion, while the Democrats are the party of wanton neglect and disregard.” After Bush’s response to Katrina, and “Heckuva Job Brownie” you’d think they’d keep their mouths shut. But as I said, no shame.
Just for your edification, here’s the video of the press briefing at the Department of State yesterday at which various agencies of the Federal Government gave to the US press, yesterday:
Not only a demonstration of compassion, but also of competence. Compare and contrast that response to how the Bush administration responded to the damage done to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina. Yeah, that was a real demonstration of compassion by a Republican administration wasn’t it?
Enough said.
There is also a Teabaggers website that basically has a petition that says we should leave Haiti alone … basically that we shouldn’t get involved and should let them fend for themselves .. sadly .. I am sure that surprises no one anymore
The website at this link has the details(it’s not the teapartier site):
http://www.thepoliticalcarnival.net/2010/01/us-should-not-help-haiti-earthquake.html
cuz issuing press releases is hard work. I don’t see how it shows anything at all.
Course the first rep out of the box was Debbie Wasserman-Shultz.
So, are these doofuses the ones releasing over $100 million? Or the marines? Or the aircraft carrier? Or the hospital ship? Or the USCG cutters? …
Didn’t think so.
A while back, Balloon Juice summed it up nicely. “The funny thing about all of this is that no matter how bad all their ideas are, no matter how disastrous their governance has been, no matter how many horrible things they have done to the economy and this country, what really is killing the Republican party is that deep down, they are just complete assholes.”
http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=29573
Well, “expressing concern” is a great leap forward for a Republican, as long as it doesn’t cost anything. More than we got from them when Katrina hit. It’s nice that they’re “seeking to gather supplies and direct funds to Non-Governmental Organizations” just like thousands of other people. Too bad it looks like the press release was Priority One. Too bad it’s really all about them. Can you think of any disaster, any tragedy, that Republicans like these wouldn’t exploit to get themselves some face time? Does anyone really still wonder what went wrong with America?