Lottistan Incumbistan

Glenn Reynolds links to Mark Steyn’s comment on Senator Trent Lott:

JUNE 15, 2007 MARK STEYN ON TRENT LOTT: "I have no serious expectations of Senators these days, but I would like them at the very least to try and sound a little less like the plump complacent emirs of the one-party-state of Incumbistan. Trent Lott fails even that test." Indeed. posted at 01:31 PM by Glenn Reynolds

As Hugh Hewitt said today, “the senators especially don't like the new media's ability to inform, inspire and direct public opinion. The end result of Senator Lott's blasts (another one here) is to of course further motivate the base…”

Here’s one blogger who has been posting about Trent Lott’s abuse of his position.
Below are two earlier posts.

In follow-up to them, it seems that Lott’s cronies also feel above the law.

October 11, 2006

Flood Insurance for Dummies, and Trent Lott

The New York Times reports that Senator Trent Lott is suing his insurer for refusing to pay up for his Gulf Coast Mississippi house flooding during Katrina, although flood damage is excluded from his policy and the Senator recognized that by taking out a federal flood policy from which he collected $350,000. To collect more, Senator Lott has threatened the insurance industry with punitive legislation.
Senator Lott, if he weren’t so self-involved and self-important, might have taken the time to read Sebastian Mallaby’s column in the Washington Post, “Flood Insurance for Dummies,” and might begin to act like a Senator instead of a rapacious dummy.

The federal flood insurance program uses taxpayers' money to subsidize houses that are prone to flooding…The program is supposed to discourage building in areas that flood more than once per decade. But in 1995 there were almost 75,000 insured properties that had flooded at least twice in 10 years. Far from discouraging this sort of building, the program appears to encourage it: Ten years on, the feds now insure 134,000 two-floods-per-decade homes. Over the past decade, these houses have generated insurance claims worth $5.7 billion while paying less than $1 billion back in premiums.
…
The insurance industry, which has billions of dollars on the table, cannot afford this sort of nonsense. It is focused on understanding climate patterns and devising rational responses. But government central planners are blind to the usefulness of price signals. So thousands of Americans build dream houses by the waters, oblivious to the risks and costs -- to themselves and to the rest of us.

This problem is not unique to the Gulf Coast. It costs taxpayers, and insurance payers, almost every year along the Calolinas’ coast, and even inland Central Valley California.

Irresponsible building in flood zones is subsidized by everyone else, and everyone else is supposed to be shocked and pay after every flood to maintain the homeowners’ irresponsible choice to have a luxury water view.

Senator Lott, you’re all wet.
— Bruce Kesler | Oct. 11, 2006 | 11:57 PM

February 23, 2007

Trent Lott’s Flood Abuse

Last October, I wrote about Senator Trent Lott’s threats to the insurance industry of punitive legislation as pressure to pay him off for the uninsured loss of his beachfront house to Hurricane Katrina.
Irresponsible building in flood zones is subsidized by everyone else, and everyone else is supposed to be shocked and pay after every flood to maintain the homeowners’ irresponsible choice to have a luxury water view.

Today’s Wall Street Journal recounts the crusade by Senator Lott to introduce punitive legislation. He, also, rounded up fellow Mississippi lawyers and politicians to launch lawsuits. State Farm caved to political extortion, and will pay off Trent Lott.
The result, for those Mississippians without Trent Lott’s position and friends:

Lost among all the politicians' war-whooping over the State Farm capitulation, is the effect this extortion has had on the private insurance industry. In recent weeks companies from State Farm to AllState have stopped writing policies in parts of Mississippi, which will result in consumers having fewer insurance choices, if they can find insurance at all.

Ah, but never fear: Washington has a solution for that, too. In the face of insurers exiting his state (in no small part because of the actions of politicians), Mr. Taylor [an ally of Lott’s] earlier this month introduced yet another piece of insurance legislation. This one would expand the national flood insurance program to cover other hurricane-related damage. In other words, the Mississippian wants to create a new federal disaster insurance program that will put taxpayers--rather than private insurers--on the hook next time a storm hits. Revenge is a scary thing.

The federal flood insurance program has already paid out six times as much as collected in premiums. Lott and buddies want taxpayers without a view to see many billions more of their taxes go into their pockets and those of wealthy or irresponsible others who knowingly build in known danger zones.

This goes beyond "pork" to sheer personal pigging out at the public's expense.
— Bruce Kesler | Feb. 23, 2007 | 1:16 AM