Hurricanes? I think they're overrated.

Hurricanes? I think they're overrated.

Arizona Republicans Sen. Jeff Flake, Sen. John McCain, and Rep. Paul Gosar all voted against emergency relief funding after SuperStorm Sandy ravaged much of the New Jersey and New York area earlier this year. Now, following an Arizona wildfire, the same trio is vocally complaining that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is not doing enough to aid their state.

Raise your hand if you didn't see this one coming: Yet another group of anti-Hurricane-Sandy-aid Republicans angrily demands federal disaster relief for their state, because this is different, damn it, in that it directly affects us this time Of course they are. McCain and Flake issued a joint statement denouncing the FEMA rejection of aid; while no one argues that the fires were not devastating, FEMA had stated the event "was not beyond the response and recovery of the state/local governments," which is the usual measure of these things. FEMA can't go around giving money to everyone who asks, after all, because Congress has demanded they not do that. Also: We're under sequestration, remember?

That said, I have absolutely no doubt that McCain will strong-arm the agency into reversing their position and giving Arizona federal money, just as Texas Gov. Rick Perry was able to speedily gain aid for the small Texas town that was leveled by a small Texas business taking advantage of small Texas regulations on how not to explode. No, even after voting against Sandy relief John McCain will get his money. And the next time some other state is hit with a natural disaster, they'll be back to demanding austerity and that those damn other states lift themselves up by their own bootstraps, because the only core principle that remains in modern conservatism is that you need to be a gigantic asshole.

