One day I hope that Gov. Blanco would write of her interactions with the Bush administration. I think it would shed the light of day on what could rank close to the top of the list of the dark and unscrupulous political acts perpetrated by the Bush administration. Politicking that hurt real people, people in dire need.
Last Friday HUD put the nail in Blanco’s coffin when it announced that Blanco’s Road Home program’s disbursement of money in installments rather than as a lump sum violated federal regulations. Blanco’s administration was stunned as HUD had approved of the program’s development every step of the way. The effect?Read Adrastos…
Thursday’s Picayune had a blow by blow account
of how and why Blanco decided to leave the race. It confirmed my hunch
that the Bush Administration’s double dealing with the Road Home
program was the final nail in Meemaw’s political coffin. It smelled
like a way to help Jindalize the electorate but every time Blanco has
complained about the partisanship of the White House, it looked like
Naginesque buck passing. Catch-22 was in effect, y’all. The Bushies
were playing down and dirty politics but people don’t want their
Governor to whine even if they have something to whine about. Catch-22.
Checkmate.
Here is a theory from Joseph at Blaguer blog…
The day after the announcement the stock of the company (ICFI) that was
running the Road Home Program, and failing, jumped 15 %– to an all
time high.Stockholders were figuring either one of two things: 1. That
Blanco was holding their feet to the fire and cutting into their
profits. or 2. That now that they had done the dirty work for the
Bushies they would be rewarded with nice fat federal contracts. Maybe a
little of both.But I hold with the second. The stalling by ICFI was
calculated from the beginning. ICFI, headed by Washington insiders from
FEMA and Homeland Security abetted by the feds, to sabotage the program
long enough for Jindal to defeat Blanco. The most recent example of fed
interference was the HUD roadblock which sabotaged that Louisiana’s
plan to have the reconstruction money put into escrow accounts instead
of awarding a lump sum.
HUD found an obscure regulation to monkeywrench
a policy that had been in place and announced for more than a year.
They said they just found out about it. Yeah, right. An article in the
Picayune this morning said that the HUD move was the last straw for
Kathleen. She knew then that the feds would never open the spigot on
the money till she was out of office. And now that Blanco is out, ICFI
stands to get a windfall in federal contracts from this administration.
That theory certainly lines up with what we have come to see as Standard Operating Politics from BushCo.
If BushCo did play politics with the spigot of federal aid, aid that has been desperately needed by hundreds of thousands of Americans, it would stand as one of the most despicable acts of this administration. And they have been quite despicable.