The Inappropriate Response Channel

Let's take a poll.

Which of the following is the least appropriate response by a public figure to the disaster in the Gulf Coast?

Here are my nominees:

HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER TOM DELAY

While on the tour with top administration officials from Washington, including U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao and U.S. Treasury Secretary John W. Snow, DeLay stopped to chat with three young boys resting on cots.

The congressman likened their stay to being at camp and asked, "Now tell me the truth boys, is this kind of fun?"

They nodded yes, but looked perplexed.

TOWNHALL.COM COLUMNIST REBECCA HAGELIN

"I can't help but conclude that if the tragic natural disaster in New Orleans had occurred in a culture that had daily practiced the Golden Rule, rather than the Gangsta Rot, we would have seen more scenes of neighbors helping neighbors and far fewer scenes of neighbors preying upon neighbors."

FIRST MOTHER BARBARA BUSH

On the refugees staying in the Houston Astrodome:

"What I’m hearing which is sort of scary is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (chuckles slightly) is working very well for them."

GRETNA, LOUISIANA POLICE CHIEF ARTHUR LAWSON

On his orders, armed sheriffs held back refugees trying to escape the flooded city of New Orleans at gunpoint.

In an interview with UPI, Gretna Police Chief Arthur Lawson confirmed that his department shut down the bridge to pedestrians: "If we had opened the bridge, our city would have looked like New Orleans does now: looted, burned and pillaged."

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH

To FEMA head Michael Brown:

"Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

From the same speech:

The good news is -- and it's hard for some to see it now -- that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house -- he's lost his entire house -- there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch. (Laughter.)

To Nancy Pelosi, the Head House Democrat:

Pelosi, speaking at a news conference, said Brown had "absolutely no credentials" when Bush picked him to run FEMA.

She related that she urged Bush at the White House on Tuesday to fire Brown.

"He said, 'Why would I do that?'" Pelosi said.

"I said because of all that went wrong, of all that didn't go right last week.'

And he said 'What didn't go right?'"

2005 BRAFFY WINNER SEN. RICK SANTORUM

When asked about the Hurricane Katrina disaster this weekend on Pittsburgh's ABC affiliate WTAE-TV, Rick Santorum said, "...you have people who don't heed those warnings and then put people at risk as a result of not heeding those warnings. There may be a need to look at tougher penalties on those who decide to ride it out and understand that there are consequences to not leaving."

RABBI AVRAHAM SHMUEL LEWIN

"Katrina is a consequence of the destruction of [Gaza's] Gush Katif [slate of Jewish communities] with America's urging and encouragement," Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Lewin, executive director of the Rabbinic Congress for Peace, told WND. "The U.S. should have discouraged Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon from implementing the Gaza evacuation rather than pushing for it and pressuring Israel into concessions."

CNN ANCHOR WOLF BLITZER

"You simply get chills every time you see these poor individuals, as Jack Cafferty just pointed out, so tragically, so many of these people, almost all of them that we see, are so poor and they are so black, and this is going to raise lots of questions for people who are watching this story unfold."

SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE DENNIS HASTERT

It makes no sense to spend billions of dollars to rebuild a city that's seven feet under sea level, House Speaker Dennis Hastert said of federal assistance for hurricane-devastated New Orleans.

"It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed," the Illinois Republican said in an interview about New Orleans Wednesday with the Daily Herald of Arlington Heights, Ill.

CHRISTIAN BROADCASTING NETWORK CORRESPONDANT GARY LANE

Reporting from outside the New Orleans Convention Center:

"A number of possessions left behind suggest the mindset of some of the evacuees," Lane said. "They include this voodoo cup with the saying, 'May the curse be with you.' " A shot of a plastic souvenir cup from one of New Orleans's countless trinket shops appeared on the screen. "Also music CDs with the titles Guerrilla Warfare and Thugs 'R' Us," Lane stated, pointing out a pile of rap CDs strewn on the ground.

REP. BAKER OF BATON ROUGE

Kudos to alert reader (and AntiCentenarian blogger) JiggaVegas for pointing out this perfectly reprehensible piece of sludge from a Louisiana member of the House.

Rep. Baker of Baton Rouge is overheard telling lobbyists: "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."

Ewww....this man is so gross...

RADIO HOST MARK WILLIAMS

On Thursday's edition of CNN's Showbiz Tonight:

...they didn't have the necessary brains and common sense to get out of the way of a Cat 5 Hurricane and then when it hit them - stood on the side of the convention Center expiring while reporters were coming and going...