Marilyn Musgrave's bad analogy

As we all know, two major winter storms blanketed eastern Colorado in the waning days of 2006.  The second storm took aim at southeastern Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico and Oklahoma.

There was some discussion on SquareState about which congressional districts the storm impacted, one of which was CO-04.  One of our local favorites, Marilyn Musgrave, represents that district and got called out for previously pandering to the religious right and her inability to prioritize.

Well, it turns out that Musgrave and our Republican Senator Wayne Allard sponsored legislation yesterday that would give aid to livestock owners who suffered losses in the storms.

More below.

Linky to the Rocky article.

Snow is blamed for the deaths of an estimated 3,500 cattle stranded on rangeland in southeastern parts of the state.

Relief costs have been mounting as the Colorado Division of Wildlife and Colorado National Guard have made emergency hay drops.

Gov. Owens issued two disaster emergencies and the hope is that a presidential declaration is on its way.  This would set up matching funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

I wanted to share the article with everybody here, and give credit where credit is due.  Then I read this:

In a release, Musgrave compared the devastation of the blizzards to the recent Hurricane Katrina disaster that ravaged the Gulf Coast.

"Although there has been a concerted effort to save livestock, the devastation of the recent storms is beginning to mount," Musgrave said. "Ranchers are now getting a glimpse of how significant their losses are as the snow is cleared away."

Which darn near made my head spin.  Even when trying to do something right, she manages to get it wrong.

I don't want to belittle the losses that will ultimately be sustained by our rural brethren.  But comparing their losses to those experience by the Gulf Coast residents in 2005 is simply obscene.

Will ranchers lose money and livestock?  Undoubtedly.  Will they struggle and will some lose their livelihoods because of this?  Yes and probably so.

Does that compare to a reported 1,836 people killed, an estimated $81.2 billion in damages, 90,000 square miles declared federal disaster areas or permanently displacing 220,000 persons?  (source)  Absolutely not.

Besides which, why would Musgrave want to remind people of her party's negligence in the Katrina disaster?