Hurricane J.D. Packs Big Wind but Does Little Damage

PHOENIX (By Ed Montini, Arizona Republic) September 22, 2005 — The most disgusting thing that an elected official could do these days is to use the victims of Hurricane Katrina for political gain.

The clever ones avoid the subject entirely. The less-than-clever ones believe that they can outsmart us by accusing other politicians of using hurricane victims. They'll claim that they're not the ones involved in the sleazy attempt to capitalize on the tragedy.

Instead, they'll say that they're only pointing out a bad thing that some other politician is doing.

As a strategy, this could be one of the worst attempts at political grandstanding ever undertaken. In fact, there is only one possible reason that a politician would believe that intelligent men and women might fall for such a half-baked scheme:

We elected him.

Republican Rep. J.D. Hayworth issued a statement this week comparing Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, to a New Orleans looter.

It reads in part: "While Americans are uniting to help the hurricane-devastated Gulf Coast region, it is sad to watch the governor of Arizona attempt to elbow Katrina's suffering victims aside and make phony claims on federal emergency disaster funding. Simply put, the governor of Arizona is no better than the brazen looters who seized on a natural tragedy to plunder downtown New Orleans."

Last month, Napolitano declared a state of emergency on the border, allowing her to access $1.5 million in state money to bolster law enforcement efforts.

Now she has contacted Washington with the idea of eventually getting some federal disaster funds. She believes, as do many others, that the federal government has failed to adequately provide states like Arizona with the money and the manpower needed to protect the border.

Hayworth has expressed similar concerns, but now says that if the governor "were sincere about addressing the problem" she would send the Arizona National Guard to the border. Local guard members would love that idea. The ones stationed in Iraq, anyway. But members of the Arizona guard also are in New Orleans. Would transferring them to the border be elbowing aside Katrina victims?

Napolitano's problem is not that she's a looter; it's that she's a thief. She has stolen Hayworth's thunder when it comes to trying to deal with Arizona's border problems.

If Hayworth actually cared about going after politicians who shortchange the needy, he would have ignored Napolitano and instead demanded that his colleagues in Congress return some of the $24 billion in pork-barrel projects for things like snowmobile trails, a bridge to an island with 50 residents and a "deer avoidance" plan that were packed into the most recent transportation bill.

Or, if Hayworth actually believes that Napolitano is as vile as a New Orleans looter, he would reverse his March decision not to run against her and enter the governor's race for 2006.

How could he not, given what he described as her "grossly ill-timed and a shamelessly insensitive political ploy"?

To which the Governor's Office should have responded, "I'm rubber, and you're glue; whatever you say bounces off me and sticks on you."

Over the past few weeks everyone in America has learned to appreciate the undeniable power of storms like Katrina and Rita. Political tempests can appear to rage with the same type of fury, but there is one significant difference.

A blowhard, like the hurricane, packs a big wind. But it does no damage.