Michigan GOP votes against aid for Blue State storm

In case you missed it…

In the House vote to approve $50 billion in aid for Hurricane Sandy relief, not one of Michigan’s Republicans voted for the bill.

In a tornado-prone state like Michigan, that vote may come back to haunt our GOP representatives.

Rep. Candice Miller, the Harrison Township  Republican who is unabashedly parochial in her politics, may find in the future that Rep. Peter King and other New York and New Jersey House Republicans may give her the old one-finger salute when she comes calling for support on a provision that would help Lake St. Clair or Selfridge Air National Guard Base.

The House Republicans have managed to make emergency aid for natural disasters a partisan, political issue. We now have Red State hurricanes and Blue State hurricanes. Nothing good can come from that.

As N.J. Gov. Chris Christie said, in his Jan. 8 State of the State Address: "We have waited 72 days, seven times longer than victims of Hurricane Katrina waited. One thing I hope everyone now clearly understands -- New Jersey, both Republicans and Democrats, will never stand silent when our citizens are being shortchanged."

By the way: GOP Rep. Steven Palazzo of Mississippi, who became the poster child for Republican hypocrisy on storm relief (for Katrina aid, against Sandy aid) switched his vote on Tuesday and supported the $50 billion bill.

Palazzo drew national attention after he voted to take no action on the Sandy relief bill earlier this month. That's because, as a local official in Biloxi, Miss., Palazzo in 2005 demanded that the feds provide $38.5 million for his town’s damaged public housing.

To his credit, Palazzo switched his vote after accepting an invitation to tour the devastation that remains in New York and New Jersey.