Gov. Blanco Blasts Bush Speech, Ignores Webb

While I generally agree with the proposition that President Bush should have made mention of the ongoing efforts to rebuild the Gulf Coast following the devastating 2005 hurricane season, Gov. Blanco slams Bush for not mentioning this situation while ignoring the fact that the Democrat rebuttal by Sen. Webb makes no mention either.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco angrily criticized President Bush on Wednesday for not mentioning 2005's destructive hurricanes in his State of the Union speech, and said Louisiana is being shortchanged in federal recovery funding for political reasons.

"I guess the pain of the hurricane is yesterday's news in Washington," Blanco said at a news conference.

Both sides of the aisle should be ashamed for not doing more to assist those who were affected by Katrina. However, Blanco's political panderings show why she was so ineffective during the height of the crisis.

UPDATE:
Via Best of the Web, opinionist Jennifer Loven also takes President Bush to task for not highlighting the plight of the Gulf Coast. I'd suggest that she get in line with all the other issues that did or did not get included in the speech. I, for one, would not have minded had Bush swapped the bit about the Palestinians and mentioned the Gulf Coast situation in its stead.

UPDATE 1/26/2006:
It has been pointed out to me in email that Webb did mention rebuilding New Orleans in his speech:

It would not be possible in this short amount of time to actually rebut the President’s message, nor would it be useful. Let me simply say that we in the Democratic Party hope that this administration is serious about improving education and healthcare for all Americans, and addressing such domestic priorities as restoring the vitality of New Orleans.

The problem is that it isn't simply New Orleans but the entire Gulf Coast that needs rebuilding. Hundreds of thousands of residents along the coast in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama have been displaced because of the hurricanes, and no one has quite done enough to improve the situation.