The political tornado in Greensburg

By Michelle Malkin  •  May 8, 2007 09:28 PM

President Bush heads to Greensburg, Kansas tomorrow to tour the devastation from the recent tornado.

Meanwhile, the political hurricane is still swirling in the wake of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ smackdown over a claimed National Guard shortage that she blames on the Iraq war.

Here’s Bob Owens’ take in defense of the White House.

Here’s the left-wing-o-sphere’s take.

And here’s notoriously biased AP Bush-basher Jennifer Loven’s spin.

Bottom line:

1) There’s probably plenty of blame to go around at all levels.

2) Some MSM reporters and Democrat officials are spoiling to relive the political disaster of Hurricane Katrina.

3) While the mouths roar, the victims remain in need. Here’s a link to charitable efforts. More here.

***

More…Sam Brownback weighs in:

Republican presidential candidate Sam Brownback disputed claims by Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius that a deadly Kansas tornado exposed holes in National Guard readiness caused by the
Iraq war.

Sebelius said Monday that Kansas is missing about half its National Guard trucks and many well-trained personnel that could have helped respond to last weekend’s tornado in Greensburg, Kan. The twister killed at least 10 people and razed the farming town.

“The issue for the National Guard is the same wherever you go in the country. Stuff that we would have borrowed is gone. It’s gone across the country,” she said Monday.

Brownback said Tuesday that local officials and the Kansas National Guard commander all told him they have the resources needed to respond.

“That’s what really got me, is her saying that,” Brownback said in an interview.

“So I asked, privately and publicly, the adjutant general, do you have the equipment you need?” he said. “Because if you don’t, we’re going to hit Fort Riley and McConnell (Air Force Base) and other places to make sure we have all the equipment we need to respond to disasters. Everybody there said no, we have the equipment we needed.”

He added: “I think what we need to do is to focus on what we need here now, and not draw a broader political question in. We’ve got a disaster, and we need to all pull together to get everything we need from the state and the federal for the local need.”

***

Update: Bryan Preston breaks it down: KS Gov tries her hand at disaster chasing Video added: Dingy Harry joins in after gov is debunked…

Was the response to the Greensburg tornado at the federal or state level perfect? No. It never is. One hand usually doesn’t know quite what the other is doing, and you see evidence of that in this case. But while people are suffering the political response was terrible and it will get worse until January 2009. What should we expect from a party of ambulance chasers, but political disaster chasers?

Read the whole thing.

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