Sunday, March 4, 2007

Newt's compassionate conservatism -- Blame the victim!

It's been a few days since I've been able to post (you know, life just keeps intruding sometimes), and my first instinct with this one was to go after Ann Coulter. However, I decided there's really no point as that's been reported to death all over the blogosphere (not the mainstream media, however -- nary a word to be found in Saturday's WP or NYT about her offensive comment -- I didn't check the LAT, but I didn't find anything at AP either). I'm also beginning to be of the opinion that if we just ignore the Wicked Witch of Michigan, she'll eventually go away (although not bloody likely after seeing the applause she got at the convention and from the freepers at their website).

Something else happened at the CPAC conference though -- and this one could have implications for all of us.

Newt Gingrich, that lovable curmudgeon from Georgia, apparently wowed the crowd, helping his standing among those conservatives who fervently wish the ex-Speaker who left Congress in 1998 would consider a run for the Presidency. Liz Sidotti of the AP writes glowingly of the Newtster, mentioning several quotes that drew applause at the convention.

She neglected to mention this one, however: "How can you have the mess we have in New Orleans, and not have had deep investigations of the federal government, the state government, the city government, and the failure of citizenship in the Ninth Ward, where 22,000 people were so uneducated and so unprepared, they literally couldn't get out of the way of a hurricane." (emphasis added.)

Yes, folks, that's a man who conceivably could the the Republican nominee for the Presidency blaming the victims for their own poverty and lack of education, thereby making them responsible for their own fate in the hurricane.

Naturally I couldn't find any mention of this in the mainstream media -- but I did find the transcript at Crooks and Liars, while you can hear the audio at Liberal Oasis.

Now that's what I call compassionate conservatism.

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