After the Deluge
The good news is that nobody appears to have died as a result of the cataclysmic amount of water that fell from the sky on Wisconsin since Friday.
So it may be hyperbole to compare this weekend’s natural disaster with the horrible devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 as well as the tsunami, the cyclone and the earthquake that took untold thousands of lives around the world in recent memory.
But seeing homes collapse in a matter of seconds and hearing people weep that all of their worldly possessions were lost brought to mind the overwhelming force of nature that is common to all of these events.
The other theme that connects these disasters is the important role that government plays to anticipate these catastrophes to the extent possible and move quickly and effectively to direct resources to help the people affected and to restore the services necessary to return lives to normal.
In a perfect world politics would have no place following such disasters. Certainly, everyone can agree that this is a basic function of government regardless of party or political persuasion.
Walker’s commitment to shrinking government may be popular on election day but it doesn’t do much good when citizens are desperately in need of help. For Walker to nod in agreement as Doyle called attention to how the rains destroyed property from the Mississippi River to Lake Wisconsin took an amazing amount of gall.
Walker has been an outspoken advocate of privatizing government services to the extent that he is open to the suggestion to transfer everything that the county does to local and state agencies and private contractors.
Why don’t we just bring in the infamous Mike Brown to manage this cleanup? Brown, you will recall, was President Bush’s appointee to head the federal Emergency Management Agency which was such a phenomenal failure following Katrina.
It is important to note that FEMA was an extraordinarily effective agency under President Clinton.
Bush came into office pledging to restore dignity to The White House. If only.
Under his leadership we have witnessed travesties foreign and domestic. While Republicans made much of Clinton’s personal peccadilloes and his propensity to let contributors bunk in the Lincoln Bedroom, who doesn’t pine for the days when our federal government took its responsibilities seriously?
Just today a new report is out detailing how Bush officials bent over to accommodate uberlobbyist, and now convicted felon, Jack Abramoff.
They say Wisconsin is a critical swing state and that both Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama will be fighting tooth and nail for our 11 electoral votes. They say McCain will be struggling to distance himself from the current occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
But what are we to think when he comes to town and Scott Walker is standing by his side nodding in agreement?
