Blame the National Weather Service?

Ok, the attempts to pass off blame have gone from irritating to evil to, as Capitolbuzz highlights, just plain goofy.

U.S. Senator Rick Santorum is suggesting that early mistakes in predicting the path of Hurricane Katrina may be a symptom of lost focus at the National Weather Service. Santorum, who introduced legislation earlier this year to curb the output of government weather forecasters, says tracking life-threatening weather must be central to what the agency is doing.

Asked about Katrina by WITF, Santorum described weather service warnings for Florida, where the storm first made landfall, as “not sufficient." Santorum’s bill instructs the government to abandon weather prediction and data reporting efforts that duplicate private-sector activity. He came under fire when it was revealed that the head of State College-based AccuWeather, which would benefit, has given his campaigns thousands of dollars.

Honestly. I can actually understand how this argument could be made, had the NWS not done its job... but it did, and everybody knew what was happening. As Atrios reminds us, the warnings were direct and frightening, predicting the fallout of the storm with stunning accuracy.

Face it, Santorum, you've just had your argument utterly rebuked. Give up, tell Accuweather they'll have to try again down the road, and move on.