UPDATE BELOW
Yesterday we all heard how Rush Limbaugh said that Obama was being
opportunistic with Haiti relief, that the Obama administration will
"use this to burnish their, shall we say, credibility with the black
community, in the ... the both light-skinned and dark-skinned black
community in this country. It's made to order for them."
Opportunism, says Limbaugh.
But it's Rush's own party that's looking for opportunities in Haiti.
Within hours of posting a controversial post about what the U.S. should do in Haiti on its website yesterday, the conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation, sprung into action to remove its most egregious parts, change its title, its url and do its best to remove any evidence from Google.
The post, written by one of its fellows, Jim Roberts, showed one of the more calloused reactions from within the Beltway.
Here was the original introduction which has since been removed:
In addition to providing immediate humanitarian assistance, the U.S. response to the tragic earthquake in Haiti earthquake offers opportunities to re-shape Haiti’s long-dysfunctional government and economy as well as to improve the public image of the United States in the region.
Forget relief. Opportunities are to be had, according to Roberts.
Roberts, who was in the State Department for 25 years, including time in Haiti, knows better than most the kind of condition Haiti was in before the earthquake and what it must be like after.
This is the original url, which also bears the post's original title:
blog.heritage.org/2010/01/13/amidst-the-suffering-crisis-in-haiti-offers-opportunities-to-the-u-s/
That's right. The title use to be: "Amidst the Suffering, Crisis in Haiti Offers Opportunities to the U.S."
The above url has now been re-directed to a different url:
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/01/13/things-to-remember-while-helping-haiti/
The title has since been changed to a friendlier, kind advice type of title: "Things to Remember While Helping Haiti." Click either url now and you wind up in the same place: "Things to Remember While Helping Haiti."
Except we now know that the Heritage Foundation has no interest in helping Haiti--only opportunity.
UPDATE (1/18/10): Heritage Foundation censors criticism.
Allen McDuffee is a political reporter, investigative journalist and blogger. From 2011 to 2013 he covered policy, politics, ideas and think tanks for The Washington Post and has also written for The Nation, The American Prospect, Huffington Post and New York Observer, among others.
