KS Dem guv pulls a Blanco, Reid joins in after debunking

"Shame" is a word missing from the Dems' vocabulary. From Hot Air:

When disaster strikes, Democrats increasingly turn to blaming Bush rather than leading their voters through the proverbial–or literal–storm. Blame Bush first and ask questions later. That’s what looks like Kansas Gov Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat, tried in the wake of last Friday’s deadly tornado in Greensburg.

With President Bush set to travel to now-razed Greensburg, Kan., on Wednesday to view the destruction wrought by Friday’s 205 mph twister, Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said she planned to talk with him about her contention that National Guard deployments to Iraq hampered the disaster response.

“I don’t think there is any question if you are missing trucks, Humvees and helicopters that the response is going to be slower,” she said Monday. “The real victims here will be the residents of Greensburg, because the recovery will be at a slower pace.”

Sebelius said that with other states facing similar limitations, “stuff that we would have borrowed is gone.”

The problem is, there is a question about all that “missing” stuff. It’s not missing. And Kansas doesn’t need it.
...
Sibelius seems to have wanted to have her own Katrina, but it didn’t quite work out. First, she’s wrong and Brownback and WH Press Secretary Tony Snow rebutted her with the facts. Kansas got what it needed and FEMA even moved supplies in before requests came in. The Iraq war had no impact on equipment or the relief effort. Second, while Katrina worked out great for the DNC it didn’t work out so well for Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco. So Sibelius backtracked.

As Snow pointed out, only 10% of KS National Guard is deployed to Iraq, and only 10% of the remaining 7000 were moved to the disaster area. Also, as Paula Zahn had to painfully point out, "Kansas has not asked for any reinforcements or extra equipment from neighboring states.... The Army says it has enough equipment for both a simulated drill and the real-life disaster, and argues, if the governor of Kansas has an urgent need for more bulldozers, backhoes, or Black Hawk helicopters, she only has to ask."

Having been confronted with those pesky fact thingys, Sebelius backtracked...but Reid did not. Oopsie.

I am reminded of a skit on SNL where Daryl Hammond plays Chris Matthews and Dan Aykroyd plays Andrew Card. Card makes outlandish claims about Bush, such as "he is 10 ft. tall" and other widly insane stuff. Matthews asks: "Does it bother you that none of that is true?", to which Card responds "If it doesn't bother Rove, it doesn't bother me."

This is the same kind of thing. Sebelius spits out some easily verifiable claptrap which is almost immediately debunked, yet Reid parrots the discredited lie anyway. Hey, if it doesn't bother the Dems as a whole that none of that was true, then it doesn't bother Reid or Sebelius.