Storms shape her legacy On behalf of the state of Louisiana, I would like to make a request of lame-duck Democrat Gov. Kathleen Blanco: give us an early Christmas present and just go away quietly. We’re tired of your inane, even mendacious, attempts to explain away your failed governorship. You blame your inadequate response to the hurricane disasters of 2005 on Republican-instigated “partisanship,” yet your own words and e-mail messages show you were the one interjecting partisanship from the very beginning into your actions which detracted from your ability to pursue better policy. In fact, despite having gone through simulated and real disasters, you still didn’t know simple intergovernmental procedures to have gotten aid faster, and you deliberately delayed to try to get partisan advantage. You also blame partisanship on the much slower pace of recovery in Louisiana than Mississippi when in fact it was your own dithering that hampered the receipt of federal recovery dollars into the state. Then your people disregarded federal rules in the distribution of that money which tied it up bureaucratically and bankrupted the program. It’s also annoying to hear you take credit for anything remotely resembling improved economic growth in the state. You promoted higher taxes that would detract from such growth and, let’s face it, the state is doing fiscally well only because of the tens of billion of dollars pumped into it for recovery funds from which the state takes a cut and because many of the former residents displaced by the storms financially took much more from the state than they contributed. Basically, you are taking credit for the weather; your recipe for economic success through inducing a natural disaster I don’t think is one we want to emulate. Now you’re poking your nose into the appointments of your successor who you knew you could not defeat, criticizing the actions of one before he’s even taken the job. Are you that desperate to make yourself appear relevant, which you have not been for about five months now? Constitutionally, we have to keep you around for almost a month. In the meantime, please just stop the attempts at historical revisionism and at achieving relevancy and leave us in peace to get on with the business that you couldn’t perform during the four years in office the state’s electorate foolishly gave you. (If you'd like to have Prof. Sadow's column mailed to you, go to http://www.between-lines.com and click on "Join the mailing list!" on the left-hand side.)