TPM picks up on Drake's "didn't want to leave" baloney
By: Rob
Published On: 8/31/2006 12:00:00 PM
Reported yesterday on RK, the team at TPM's Election Center has noticed Thelma Drake's ridiculousness too:
On the eve of the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, GOP Rep. Thelma Drake was asked by an alternative weekly in Virginia why so many people were left behind in New Orleans when the Hurricane struck. The question referred to residents unable to evacuate who took refuge in the Superdome, as well as people trying to leave on foot who were blocked by armed police from adjacent towns. Drake's response? "They didn't want to leave."
Anyone in the Virginia newspaper industry want to ask Thelma about her blaming the victims of Katrina?
Comments
? (hrconservative - 8/31/2006 12:21:33 PM)
Many didn't want to leave before the hurricane hit. How is that a wrong statement again?
Let's see, how about... (Lowell - 8/31/2006 12:44:32 PM)
insensitive, clueless, ignorant...
You describe Mayor Nagin well. (I.Publius - 8/31/2006 1:10:22 PM)
He had the means to effectuate the removal, but he sat on his rich, fat arse.
the question was about... (Rob - 8/31/2006 12:50:48 PM)
the government evacuating them. Go read the original article - the journalist compares the army mobilization to evacuate Lebanon to the failure to evacuate New Orleans.
It's the "after the crisis" hit evacuation that Thelma responded to.
Still ? (hrconservative - 8/31/2006 1:28:56 PM)
That is not the federal government's responsibility. That is state and local government. I think the federal government did what they could after the state and local failed. The sheer number of people was why it was so hard, which is why Thelma said they didn't want to leave. If they had left when everybody was telling them to leave, before the huge hurricane made a direct hit, the evacuation would have involved less people and less time. I am sorry for what happened, but you cannot blame the federal government for the failures of personal responsibility and state and local government.
do a little research (Rob - 8/31/2006 1:47:08 PM)
five seconds on DHS's website will show you it had "primary responsibility" in responding to the natural disaster, including "providing a coordinated, comprehensive federal response to any large-scale crisis and mounting a swift and effective recovery effort."