Krugman's Snow Job

In writing about the recent seeming inability of New York City workers to remove snow from city streets, Paul Krugman spouts what would be the usual party line: Mayor Bloomberg was not up to the job, and it was "Bloomberg's Katrina." Why? Well, Bloomberg is not ideologically pure enough for Krugman, or so the Great Economist says.

Writes Krugman:

But he just faced a major test of crisis management — and it’s been a Brownie-you’re-doing-a-heck-of-a-job moment.

I was wondering why NYC’s storm response was such a mess; it turns out that the city administration basically refused to take the warnings seriously, long after anyone watching the Weather Channel knew that a blizzard was coming.

We have yet to find out exactly why. But this was a major fail.

However, as the New York Post writes, it seems that there also was something that Krugman ignored: union sabotage:

Selfish Sanitation Department bosses from the snow-slammed outer boroughs ordered their drivers to snarl the blizzard cleanup to protest budget cuts -- a disastrous move that turned streets into a minefield for emergency-services vehicles, The Post has learned.

Miles of roads stretching from as north as Whitestone, Queens, to the south shore of Staten Island still remained treacherously unplowed last night because of the shameless job action, several sources and a city lawmaker said, which was over a raft of demotions, attrition and budget cuts.

"They sent a message to the rest of the city that these particular labor issues are more important," said City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queens), who was visited yesterday by a group of guilt-ridden sanitation workers who confessed the shameless plot.

Halloran said he met with three plow workers from the Sanitation Department -- and two Department of Transportation supervisors who were on loan -- at his office after he was flooded with irate calls from constituents.

Of course, given that Krugman believes that municipal unions are good for the economy and fit his ideology, somehow that little tidbit of news managed to slip by him. No doubt, I am sure that the union leaders who made sure the streets weren't plowed also knew that the Usual Suspects and the NY Times and people like Krugman would be quite happy to cover for their ideological soulmates.

Krugman really should call his blog: No Conscience of a Liberal.