Why do people in blue states blame people in red states for their problems? Living in the DC area for more than a decade, I heard about how guns transported from Virginia were the cause of the city's violence and how Republicans in Congress underfunding education were responsible for illiterates graduating from the city's overfunded schools. New Orleans, administered by corrupt Democrats for as long as any of the living have been alive, blamed the Bush administration for a hurricane and the problems that ensued. Now Minnesotans lash out at Republicans for the collapse of a bridge that has resulted in numerous deaths.

Tragedies are opportunities for the vultures. They're circling in Minneapolis. Gross.

One featured post on Daily Kos notes, "it's possible that delayed maintenance--delayed because of budget cuts, as the Republican Pawlenty would rather chop off his own genitals than undo his tax cuts for the rich--may have been a factor." Another blogger imagines that "too many years of 'no new taxes' may be coming home to roost." "Months from now, (hopefully in time for the 2008 election) some commission will issue a report," Peter Smith writes on Huffington Post. "Minnesota will know the causes. If, as some already suspect, showboating fiscal constraints, budget-bending accounting flim-flam, and gridlock born of political ambition led to deferring the project and the expense of repairing the bridge, the pols will be made to know that those kinds of things aren't supposed to happen here."

The disaster happened Wednesday. Its blame readied itself in moth balls long before it occurred.

Government is tasked with the construction and maintainence of most bridges, so the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge will naturally have political implications. That recriminations will involve the federal government will naturally follow the fact that the road was an Interstate (Please inform this ignorant blogger in the comments section who--state or federal--traditionally maintains interstate bridges.). The federal government deemed the bridge "structurally deficient." State officials, including several inspecting professors, didn't see it that pessimistically. No one, it seems, dubbed the bridge so unfit that it needed structural repairs yesterday.

Louisiana had a Democratic governor during Hurricane Katrina and Minnesota has a Republican governor during this bridge-collapse disaster. Therefore, it's okay to blame the governor in this instance when it was verboten to blame Louisiana's governor in the Katrina instance. In 1967, the Silver Bridge between West Virginia and Ohio collapsed, killing 46 people in the worst such disaster in American history. Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat, was president then, so it wasn't his fault. But in 2007, George Bush, a Republican, is president, so it is his fault.

Do you get it?

These are the rules of big government. The party of bigger government never has to say "sorry." They take on responsibilities that they don't fulfill. When disaster strikes, they demand more responsibilities and damn those who initially warned against their irresponsibility. Thus, big government becomes bigger not despite of but because of its incompetence.

As for infrastructure and govt's involvement in it everyone knows (and I do mean knows) how corrupt it is. Here is Steve Sailer's comment on that score:

"Road-building is a national disgrace. It's corrupt -- Mayor Daley's closest buddies in Chicago are the road-builders who finance his campaigns in return for enormous contracts -- and thus the quality of our roads intentionally stink, wearing down our cars and lowering our gas mileage. They're supposed to fall apart because that puts more money in campaign donors' pockets. Roads in Belgium are made to last 40 years, in Chicago 12 years."

This is not a secret, and it is our political elites, its hanger-ons at the Daily Kos's of the world as well as the MSM of renown low intelligence that look the other way on this. Why should Belgium have better roads than us? (For that matter why should Iraq?)

Back when the San Francisco earthquake hit, a network reporter asked Republican Governor Dukmeijan, "Governor, will you now at last raise taxes?"

thats why i cant stand democrats.

Even if it were fixed, what is to say that would have prevented anything? Big Dig anyone?

How much money is enough? I'll tell you how much: more.

Pols collect outrageous taxes and fees to provide for services and state runned projects. Much of that money doesn't reach the places where it's needed but gets squandered on pork, pet projects and payback to cronies.

Tolls, gas and excise taxes and other costs and fees are supposed secure our roadways. But, roads $uck, bridges $suck and, here in Massachusetts, for $15 billion dollars we have a marvelous structure that was falling apart before it was finished and has killed at least one citizen so far and is on a daily basis a sinkhole for more repair money.

Pols used to at least ACT like they cared about public safety but now they ciphon money meant for public works projects and then wring their hands and point fingers when something horrific happens. And then say that they need more money to fix the problem.