Haley Barbour's friends and relatives have turned Katrina into their own personal piggy bank

[marmar]

from OurFuture.org:


Katrina: Haley's Come-on
Submitted by Rick Perlstein on August 28, 2007 - 7:17pm.


I've written about the "golden opportunity" right-wing ideologists spied in the landfall of Hurricane Katrina for forcing what they could never accomplish through the democratic process. Now it's time to call our the Republicans who also saw the hurricane as a golden opportunity to line their and their cronies' pockets.

Exhibit A, B, C, and so on through Z are the associates of Haley Barbour, the former tobacco lobbyist and RNC chair who won election as Mississippi's governor in 2003. That was a busy year for our Haley. His other super-special 2003 project was setting up a consulting company, New Bridge Strategies to help with the looting (I mean "assisting clients to evaluate take advantage of business opportunities") of what was supposed to be—oh, those bygone days of conservative confidence!—"postwar" Iraq. Ah, the wonder-working powers of conservative public service: "One well-stocked 7-Eleven could knock out 30 Iraqi stores," one New Bridge partner was quoted saying in the Washington Post; "a Wal-Mart could take over the country."

So what was Haley Barbour's contribution to the post-Katrina reconstruction?

Here's what his Wikipedia entry says. He appears to have written it himself:

Barbour's response was characterized by a concerted effort at evacuation, tough-minded talk on looters and an unwillingness to blame the federal government. His response was compared, favorably, to that of Rudy Giuliani in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

Barbour credited the countless government workers who helped southern Mississippi cope with the hurricane. But Barbour was praised by the coast's citizens as a strong leader who can communicate calm to the public and provide “a central decision-making point for when things get balled up or go sideways, which they do,” as Barbour says.

Barbour was blunt with the facts about the utter devastation of the coast, but his own demeanor in public appearances suggested that the state would summon the will to rebuild. Mississippi also reopened all of its public schools by November 2005.


What a mensch. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/katrina_haleys_come?tx=3