McCain's Pander Bus stops in New Orleans, lies to the Lower 9th
John McCain's "Pander To Anyone I Can Think Of" tour has made a particularly shameless stop in New Orleans. In the still-devastated Lower Ninth Ward, the poorest and most heavily damaged area of the city, McCain had the gall to say this:
"Never again will a disaster of this nature be handled in the terrible and disgraceful way it's been handled," McCain said in remarks addressed to the people of New Orleans and Louisiana. "History will judge this president," he said in answer to a question about President Bush's legacy. "But it will never, ever again happen."
These words came from the same man whose Senate votes contributed to the "terrible and disgraceful" handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and validated the disastrous non-response from the Bush White House:
Democrats criticized McCain's visit to New Orleans, noting that he'd voted against a spending bill in 2006 that would have provided $28 billion in hurricane relief, and legislation that would have extended unemployment and Medicaid benefits to hurricane victims for several months. The Arizona senator also opposed a commission to study the federal government's response.
"Touring the 9th Ward with reporters can't hide the fact that John McCain voted against billions of dollars in Katrina recovery efforts, emergency healthcare for survivors, unemployment assistance for displaced workers, and even the creation of a commission to find out what went wrong," Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said in a statement. "People in the Gulf Coast can hardly afford four more years of the failed Bush-McCain agenda."
McCain/Bush: a distinction without a difference.