Nussle: Flood flip-flopper

Jim Nussle just can't make up his poor little mind. The man wants to be governor of the state of Iowa, but how can he run on something like this:

"Iowa Democrats on Wednesday sloshed into the watery past to deliver some criticism of House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle's record on deficits and disasters.

Nussle, a Republican candidate for governor, voted for a $51.8 billion package of aid for victims of Hurricane Katrina on Sept. 8 and said that Congress should focus first on assisting victims."

Don't worry about the money in this initial phase" of recovery, Nussle said. When reconstruction and rebuilding begins, "then there will be fiscal issues that are appropriate to discuss, but not at this initial stage when we are still rescuing and relocating people."

But Lt. Gov. Sally Pederson, who also is the head of the Iowa Democratic Party, said that when all 99 of Iowa's counties were declared a disaster because of widespread flooding in 1993, Nussle delayed a vote on aid.

"The tens of thousands of people affected by Hurricane Katrina deserve immediate relief, but 12 years ago, so did the citizens of Iowa," she said. "Where was Jim Nussle then?"

So, it's ok to vote against helping your own constituents and their families to bring them aid when the debt is bad? But when your President massively mismanages the largest natural disaster in American history you've got to save his ass by making sure to help right away?

It is really all great and good that Congressman Nussle is worried about the people of the Gulf Coast. Everyone in America should be worried about them and making sure they get the help they need.

But what happens if Jim Nussle is elected governor of Iowa and, God help us, we have to face another massive disaster like the Floods of 1993? Will he show leadership then? I doubt it.

I see him showing up at a press conference with a paper bag on his head telling Iowans to tough it out.