Rush on Katrina: “We Can Make This a Category 5 Hurricane Destruction of the Left”

Some left-of-center pundits offered strong praise for President Bush’s speech on Katrina last week:

Donna Brazile: “On Thursday night, after watching him speak from the heart, I could not have been prouder of the president and the plan he outlined. … It is unprecedented in its scope and ambition.” [Washington Post, 9/16/05]

Alan Colmes: “I thought that he sounded like FDR and I thought he sounded like LBJ.” [Fox News, 9/15/05]

These comments were premature to begin with, since the speech contained very few details. But they were also misguided: the ideas Bush did present were right out of the Heritage Foundation’s “manifesto on post-Katrina policy,” a recipe for turning the Gulf Coast into a right-wing ideological playground.

Rush Limbaugh knows what’s going on. On Friday’s program, Rush said:

The president said we tried it your way for 60 years; we’re going to do it my way now. He didn’t put it in those words but there’s plenty of conservative policy in his speech last night in terms of how to go about spending this money and rebuilding it. And you’re going to see these policies, these philosophies, put into place. They’ve worked in other places. Enterprise zone, for example, that’s going to be targeted here in this region. …

The speech was great last night, within, you know, the limitations that we know exist. The table is set for a complete rout of the American left. They can be blown away. We can make this a Category 5 hurricane destruction of the left if this is done right. …

[T]he one thing that [the left] cannot risk is an on-site display and illustration of conservatism working. As long they can keep conservatism as something that’s just argued about, and just something that’s spoken about, talked about, “Well, they don’t fear it that much.”