The Blame Game, Republican-Style The latest right wing tack on the disaster in New Orleans is to pin the blame on "the welfare state" and its purported architects: "Oh, look how poor the population --" Well, what do you expect when you have a welfare state mentality as your city government? I mean, I'm not even being critical. I'm just trying to point out something obvious here! That -- talking about this for 18 years, folks -- socialism versus capitalism; entrepreneurialism and self-reliance versus the entitlement mentality -- so much on display here. That's what nobody's got the guts to say...We are not going to be lectured to by a bunch of people who ran New Orleans and Louisiana for 60 years and gave us what we just saw on TV the last week. We are not going to be lectured to.". Rush Limbaugh, Sept. 1st Is there anyone actually dumb enough to follow Bush down the primrose path to complete denial of political reality over the last century? The fact is that Louisiana has always been a state where ideologies like Limbaugh's have held sway. You can point to Democratic leadership historically, but how much of that leadership was actually Dixiecrat? Consider the current congressional caucus from LA: Jindal(R), Alexander(R),Baker(R), Boustany(R), MCCrery(R),Melancon(D),Jefferson(D), and Landreiu (D). Of the Democrats listed above, with the possible exception of Jefferson, their voting records have led them to be referred to as "DINOS": Democrats in Name Only. That's the quandry for Republicans. If you control all three branches of government and the majority of the press, who is there left to blame? Why the corrupt, liberal Democratic local government, of course...But wait...there's only one problem with this approach. The designated scapegoat, New Orleans mayor Roy Nagin, is also a DINO: * In 2000, Nagin supported George W. Bush (R) for president. * In 2002, Nagin got elected mayor, saying he was a Democrat (D). * In 2003, Nagin supported Bobby Jindal (R) for governor over Democrat Kathleen Blanco The Louisiana Democratic Party, is a far cry from the Minnesota DFL. Lousiana is a Red State, and its policies prior to the disaster practically made it a posterboy for the values you espouse. Lousiana is the consummate low tax, low service state conservatives love, and tragedies like this are more a consequence of a warfare state than a welfare state.