Assemblyman Todd Spitzer burns Arnold over fires

California Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, who represents much of the burned-out area here in Orange County, blasted the state government for not preparing properly for the fires since the last major fires in 2003. Since then, of course, the state government has been run by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The NY Times reports:

“There were a lot of calls for equipment and resources,” said Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, who represents a district in Orange County. “When you have a finite amount of resources, you have to prioritize life and property first, and so we didn’t get water dropping until we started to lose structures.”

The L.A. Times reported:

Assemblyman Todd Spitzer (R-Orange) complained Tuesday that more tankers and helicopters could have helped contain Orange County fires, saying, “We’ve all known this day was going to happen.” Spitzer did not renew his complaints Wednesday, when he traveled in the fire zone with the governor.

Schwarzenegger dismissed the complaint as “ridiculous.”

“We had the aircraft there but they couldn’t fly because of the weather conditions, and because of the wind,” he said Wednesday.

But it’s not ridiculous. If there had been more planes, it’s more likely some of them could have flown. Arnold has moved into the “damage control” mode he used when one of his movies flopped at the box office. He’s doing it now as his administration has flopped and the state he misrules is burning.

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