The mayor of Tampa said that the Republican National Committee faces a “moral dilemma” in how to handle its convention with Hurricane Isaac making a beeline for the Gulf Coast.
“There will be some rain, but I think tonight most of it will clear out and tomorrow is going to be great,” Mayor Bob Buckhorn told CNN this morning about the current situation in the convention city.
But with the storm barreling toward the area slammed by Katrina seven years ago, the mayor said Republicans may have to make other decisions, as well.
“It really is a challenge. I mean, they’ve got to get a nominee out of this process. So out of this event in Tampa has to come a nominee,” Buckhorn said. “But at the same time they have a moral dilemma, in terms of if there’s loss of life or if there is loss of property in New Orleans, what is it that they do?”
“Chairman [Reince] Priebus, I don’t envy him. I mean, it would be a tough decision. But I know they’re going to have to move forward to get Governor Romney nominated so that this process can begin. I would not want to be in the chairman’s shoes this week,” he added.
Buckhorn said that the RNC made the right call in delaying the start of the convention by a day, and even saw a silver lining in a town full of delegates with little to do.
“It was in the best interest of their delegates. It is risky coming across those bridges if you have sustained 40-mile-per-hour winds,” he said. “I think they made the right decision. Delegates will stay indoors and hopefully spend a lot of money and they’ll be back at it tomorrow.”
The Democrat will be headed to Charlotte, N.C., for the DNC next week, but is giving welcoming remarks to the RNC tomorrow and said that this week he’s “agnostic.”
“We want to be the best host that the RNC has ever had and I want to be their favorite mayor,” Buckhorn said. “This to me is not a partisan event. It’s an economic development opportunity and we’ve treated it just like that.”
The Republicans face a “moral dilemma” because of the potential outcome from a natural disaster but the Democrats don’t face one because of the outcome of a man-made disaster? Mayor Bob Buckhorn doesn’t understand the first thing about morality, ethics, or basic human decency. Of course, he is both a politician and a Democrat…
But the Mayor does beg the question – why on earth is the GOP having a convention in a city governed by the lunatic fringe left? Why is the GOP rewarding pathetic Democratic losers with economic development? Is it part of the “reward your enemies and punish your friends” strategy? Why go out of your way to give your political opponents the opportunity to generate cheap talking points? Oh, right, is was to reward “Republican” Charlie Crist.
How nice…the DEMOCRAT mayor of Tampa has a thought….and, as us usual for him he travels party lines without missing a beat.
Hey STUPID….If anyone gets hurt THAT IS ON YOU…YOU ARE THE MAYOR…or will it be like NO and KATRINA…and we blame it all on BUSH…ONLY THIS TIME WE CAN BLAME IT ALL ON OBAMA…
Stupid putz….should be kicked out…A good friend of ours ran against him…SHE SHOULD HAVE WON…
While the RNC may have to take some actions, I believe the current administration will be responsible this time around, not GWB.
Are you in the market for a bridge?
The Democrats on the other hand won’t have a moral dilemma since they’ve no morals. There will be irony however, If the storm does real damage to the oil patch or the Mississippi River channels, then there will be a serious economic impact just in time for the election. And Obama will have to depend on the big, burley working class men he so loves to denigrate and whom he specifically didn’t want to benefit from his stimulus to get things going again.
Not to mention, DC is shutting down for the Labor Day weekend, with the added Dem convention next week, just as NOLA may need the federal government firing on all cylinders. The Labor Day weekend had a lot to do with the slow federal response to Katrina. By the time calls for assistance were headed to DC, the answering machines were picking up for the long weekend. The bureaucrats, in the hot seat after it hit the fan, returned on that Tuesday fired up to demand people in the mud get them information and do something to make HQ look good. I can tell you, tempers were short when the DC idiots started making demands after the long dead silence over the holiday.
Let’s see….if Isaac wreaks massive hurricane havoc anywhere and everywhere, the RNC and the Republican Presidential nominating convention in Tampon — er, um, “Tampa” — will face a “moral challenge” and/or “dilemma” exactly WHY????
What the %#@&@ does a meeting held in some convention center venue have to do with the price of ale in a London pub or the price of clams in Portland, Oregon?
If New Orleans gets slammed with massive property damage and/or loss of life, Ozymandias-on-the-Potomac owns it lock, stock and barrel (oh me oh my, there goes another one of the “violent gun” metaphors…I’m getting the vapors…)
Obviously only (il)liberal (il)logic is capable of making the clear “connect the dots” association of cause/effect/blame from meeting to mayhem-of-Nature.
Man, this dude’s been inhaling waaaaay too many pixie-dust-fed-unicorn-farts…
What a tool. He’s already laying the groundwork for accusations that Republicans are unsympathetic to the plight of others. Be prepared for a great deal of reporting how they were partying in Tampa while the northern Gulf Coast got hammered, even though there’s not one damn thing they could do about it.
Because what the media REALLY wants is a four-day long moment of silence from the RNC. Out of respect, dont’cha know.
And what, pray tell, are the Republican supposed to do? They aren’t the elected officials in charge. I believe all the relevant officials are in their states doing their jobs. The RNC crowd can’t do squat to help at this stage in the game except mention that the people of the Gulf are in everyone’s thoughts and prayers. It’s the DNC that will have to worry when their nominee has to leave to be at the helm of any possible disaster relief. That is what Katrina taught us that all good presidents should do … you know, drop everything and stand knee deep in mud and flood … right?
When it comes to standing “in the mud and shoulder to shoulder” we should expect the standee to be Moochelle. The 0 won’t dirty his hands….to say nothing of his $2000 suits.
The Mayor of Tampa is credited with one of the greatest and most revealing statements ever made by a politician:
In reference to the Miami-Orlando-Tampa high speed train (which the Gov of Florida rejected as being too costly) the Major of Tampa said:
“I am hoping that the government will pick up the whole bill for building the system so that the taxpayers will not have to.”
The man is a genius! Don’t use taxpayer money! Use government money!
Tampa’s too small for him. He really ought to be running the European Union.
Pick any democrat politician and they all think that republicans “face a moral dilemma” by breathing. Ask ‘em.
This guys comments and antics have probably made Tampa’s chance of landing future major conventions dimmer. What convention organizers want to hear the City’s mayor even talking “we are closing the city down”, “CANCEL!!!”, etc.
Isaac so far is a Trop Storm, still at 65 MPH winds with no increase in 16 hours. It may make Cat 1 at 74 MPH. It is not a Cat 5 Katrina.
Any Trop Storm is serious, this one looks very, very wet so a huge chance of flooding and storm surge.
Was Orlando and Disneyland telling their patrons to pack up and leave?