In a cynical ploy to gain votes in Florida, the Republican Party added a vague plank to its platform calling for a "natural disaster insurance policy," a week after the Democrats came out for a federally-backed catastrophe fund.

Is it a coincidence the Republicans hastily tacked on innocuous language about an unspecified "policy" right after Hurricane Gustav nearly hammered New Orleans--just three years following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina? I don't think so, especially with Hurricane Hanna and two additional windstorms on a collision course with the U.S. coast at the time.

While catastrophe-prone states need all the support they can get, the problem is that it's not at all clear exactly what the Republican Party wants to do. "Americans hit by disaster must never again feel abandoned by their government," the platform pontificates. "The Katrina disaster taught a painful lesson: The federal government's system for responding to a natural calamity needs a radical overhaul."

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