Frank's Falsehood

A long ways back in the archives, when Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass) stood up to Eason Jordan (D-CNN) about Jordan's outrageous slander of our troops, I praised him as an honorable man. Now I wonder if he is crazy. Frank has accused the President of using hurricane Katrina as an opportunity to perform ethnic cleansing in New Orleans.


Much of the hyperbole regarding Katrina is false for anyone who cares to peruse the findings. Of the loss of life in Hurricane Katrina 58% were black to 40% white. According to the 2000 US Census the percent of the NOLA population which is black is 69%. Not terribly effective ethnic cleansing. Perhaps though Rep. Frank's mouth disconnected more profoundly from his brain than is apparant. Perhaps instead of ethnic cleansing he meant political cleansing. Except that the citizens of NOLA reelected Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco, democrats both. On the face of it the charges are rediculous, why would Representative Frank make such an outrageous claim?

The only reason I can come up with is either Frank can no longer distinguish fact from fiction, in which he should step down due to incompetence; or a cynical disregard of fact in order to pursue power in the most rapacious and unethical fashion.

Lord knows the Bush Administration made a woeful mess of their responsibilites in the aftermath of Katrina, but the more culpable parties are Nagin and Blanco, as state executives in charge of resources for the first 72 hours. I see Frank make no accusations against them. Bryan at HotAir says it best:

To accuse the sitting President of the United States of enacting ethnic cleansing on American soil is to accuse the President of the United States of committing a grave atrocity worthy of impeachment and worse. It is to equate the President of the United States with Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, and yes, Saddam Hussein.

With such untruthful and inflammatory accusations from figures like Frank I am surprised we haven't seen some deranged citizen try to assasinate the President.