He spells his name with a silent 'P'

Kick 'em while they're down -- it's the Republican way, and Rick Santorum is ALL Republican.

In a weekend interview with WTAE-TV about the victims of Hurricane Katrina, Santorum said: "I mean, you have people who don't heed those warnings and then put people at risk as a result of not heeding those warnings. There may be a need to look at tougher penalties on those who decide to ride it out and understand that there are consequences to not leaving."

On Tuesday night on WTAE, Santorum clarified his comments.

"Obviously most of the people here in this case, an overwhelming majority of people just literally couldn't have gotten out on their own," he said. "Many didn't have cars ... And that really was a failure on the part of local officials in not making transportation available to get people out."

Of course, he was referring to the logistically simple task of checking a list of nonevacuators against against Louisiana DMV records to see who had cars and didn't leave. (How does he feel about charging "suspects" posthumously?)

Oh, and let's give Ricky the shout-out he deserves for shifting the blame to "local officials" while covering his own ass. Way to carry Bush's water, bitch.