Transcript: Mark Steyn on Hugh Hewitt 7 September

Mark Steyn on what DeTocqueville understood, what Blanco didn't, and the Democrats' march to 20%

HH: We beging this hour with Mark Steyn, columnist to the world, on a week that is becoming exceedingly bizarre. Mark Steyn, welcome back. Always good to talk to you.

HH: Mark, before we get to the specifics that I'm talking about, the media's meltdown, it seems to me that a lot of facts have come to light. What's your judgment of what went wrong last week in New Orleans?

MS: Well, I think the question of what went wrong is a very simple one. It actually has a failed local and state government. And when you're in that situation, there's a limit to what the national government can do, particularly when you're talking about a national government that has to basically span a continent. You know, DeTocqueville understood this in 1840, when he published Democracy in America. He said a nation can establish a free government, but without municipal institutions, it cannot have the spirit of liberty. And that's the point. That's what we saw on September 11th, that it was in the Mayor and the police and the fire departments, and the other municipal institutions in New York, that you saw the spirit of liberty, and you measured the health of that society. And that's what has failed with this guy who's the mayor of New Orleans, and with this governor of Louisiana, and this hysterical meltdown by Senator Landrieu of Louisiana.

HH: You know, Mark Steyn, there seems to be a massive attempt at fraud under way, which if it was occurring in the mail, it would be, I think, subject to mail fraud, which is to persuade America, via the MSM, that this is George Bush's and his FEMA's fault. How do you respond to this?

MS: Well, I think I understand when the foreigners to this, because if somebody in a Belgian newspaper says why isn't Bush doing more, that's fair enough. You know, they think of this as a problem, why aren't the politicians doing more. And the only American politician that they've heard of in foreign countries is the president, George Bush. But what excuse do the networks and the big newspapers have? They don't have that same excuse. And they're colluding, essentially, as you say, in a fraud that is going to further damage their reputation. It's not really having any effect in the polls. It'll just be another one of these dead horses they flog for a while, until they finally give up on it, because another dead horse has come along.

HH: Well, you know how someone talks about cars who doesn't know anything about cars? Like me talking about cars? And they give it away right away, and then you don't listen to them on cars. On this story, the national media is giving away they don't understand anything about government.

MS: Yeah. I think you're right. You made a very good point a couple of day ago, that actually, this is the sort of stuff that is a basic civics class stuff. And I've found it extraordinary that people don't understand. People say why can Bush do so much in Iraq, and he can't do so much in Louisiana. Because Louisiana is a sovereign entity, and he has basically, unless he wants to take extraordinary powers that haven't been used in this country for a hundred and forty years, he has to do everything with the cooperation of the governor. And this governor is someone who before all this happened, was characterized in the press as deliberative. What that means, is that she seems to take days to make simple decisions.

HH: No. She's befuddled. I want to play for you a few clips, Mark Steyn. The first is from my...a sort of an example from CNN of a decrepit, old journalist attempting to be relevant again, by being angry. It's Jack Cafferty again. I played him for you last week. He's back. Here's today's show with Wolf Blitzer, a little bit of a lead-in.

HH: Mark Steyn, that's not only incoherent, it's sort of bear-baiting, don't you think?

MS: Well, I think this is a ridiculous argument. You know, I'm happy if that is the first time the Vice President hears that, because I wake up to hundreds of those e-mails, as I'm sure you do, from angry lefties every morning. And we know that they're actually very good at using words of four letters and all the rest of it. What they're not so good at is actually coming up with practical proposals, and practical solutions about how you handle these things. And I think that's really what's the obscenity here, is that you know, whatever we feel about what's happened in New Orleans, the moment this thing struck, your website and mine and a lot of others, our first reaction was to raise money and go get up a big fundraising operation, and try to make things better for people there. Where as on the left, the main strategic aim was to position this thing as something that would damage Bush. And they've become as insane about this president as the nuttiest Islamists are about the Jews. You know, when you hear imams talk, an Australian imam the other day accused the Jews of poisoning the bananas that are on sale in Muslim stores. And that's how crazy you've got when you've the left saying that...raising questions about whether the Republican Party had the Army Corps of Engineer deliberately blow up the levees in New Orleans.

MS: Well, you know, the grouchy old guy argument, that might be more persuasive if we hadn't just had on Paul Begala's own network from Jack Cafferty, who's a grouchy old guys with a lot less upstairs than Dick Cheney. And if we hadn't heard from Ted Kennedy, who's a groucy old guy, and apparently utterly insensitive to the kind of remarks he's been making. You know, there's grouchy old guys on all sides of these things. The question is who are the grouch old guys who are going to get things done, and who are the grouchy old guys just recycling urban myths, and the most pathetic and stale and ultimately self-defeating kind of partisan hack work.

HH: Now, coming up after the break, I'm talking to Senator Norm Coleman, who is on Homeland Security. I must tell you, I shuddered when I thought that Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs would lead this investigation. I'm still not persuaded that a select committee, run by Senators and Congressmen, will ever get to the bottom of what is in essence, a governmental failure at the local level. What's your assessment of the coming probe of the post-Katrina relief effort?

MS: I think it's a complete waste of time, and you know, I think insofar as there is a role for Congress in this, the big question here is, when Congressional delegations get to Washington, a lot of the time they become too interested in just big pork projects with lots of zeros on the end, as opposed to actually thinking about the best way to target the funds within their state. And Louisiana is a classic example of that.

MS: And that's not something that Congressmen or Senators are really going to want to investigate, because it gets right to the heart of Congress' identity.

HH: Now Mark Steyn, as we go forward from this, the question is, can rebuilding actually occur down there? And we're spending fifty billion dollars on our way to two hundred billion dollars. Do you see any innovation in the ideas that have emerged yet?

MS: I don't. I don't think actually that town is worth rebuilding, just as a kind of heritage park for what it is, which is a mildly agreeable party town, surrounded by this kind of stale welfare culture. I think it needs to be reinvigorated at a much more profound level. And I hope somebody is giving some thought to that. And that will be the private sector that does that, not government commissions.

HH: Last question. Let's switch over to the Supreme Court. The angry left, so allegedly afraid of another John Roberts or to the right judicial pick, has done nothing except attack the president. Do you expect he's going to respond to that by nominating someone they would consider acceptable?

MS: No. I think he'll nominate the kind of person he wants on there. And you know, the problem for the Democrats is that they threw everything into demonizing John Roberts, and couldn't find anything on him. Couldn't find anything on him. Their rhetoric has completely lost all sense of proportion. And they're going to wind up...at the moment, they're mired as the 40% party. If they keep on like this, they're going to be the 30%, and then the 20% party. Because there's less and less of a market for this. It's not shifting anything in the polls.

MS: Well, you do have parties that actually self-destruct, because they do become just sad and oppositional. And there's very little you can do about that once that becomes the classic condition...chronic condition.

And they've become as insane about this president as the nuttiest Islamists are about the Jews. You know, when you hear imams talk, an Australian imam the other day accused the Jews of poisoning the bananas that are on sale in Muslim stores. And that's how crazy you've got when you've the left saying that...raising questions about whether the Republican Party had the Army Corps of Engineer deliberately blow up the levees in New Orleans.

I'm going to rip this off from Steyn. It's the perfect analogy.

The liberal biased news media is beating the Katrina horse for two reasons. First, they always attack Bush and his administration no matter what the subject. Second, they must attack with vigor because their own leaders will be exposed for what they truly are ........CORRUPT FRAUDS.

And this governor is someone who before all this happened, was characterized in the press as deliberative. What that means, is that she seems to take days to make simple decisions.

She shouldn't run a Lemonade Stand, much less a state. I say, if she is eligible and the people of Louisiana vote her in again, we take them off the nations 911 response list.

She shouldn't run a Lemonade Stand, much less a state. I say, if she is eligible and the people of Louisiana vote her in again, we take them off the nations 911 response list.

I heard somebody say yesterday that Democratic pols like Blanco & Landrieux are going to have a heckuva time getting re-elected next go-round. New Orleans -- their vote-manufacturing piggy bank -- won't be able to put them over the top. Landrieux has survived 2 elections by razor-thin margins. Part of the reason that she's been freaking out may be the recognition that her political career may be permanently de-railed.

Well, you do have parties that actually self-destruct, because they do become just sad and oppositional. And there's very little you can do about that once that becomes the classic condition...chronic condition.

Who were the Whigs? Alex, I'll stay with "Political Meltdowns" for 200...

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