After 10 days, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg finally responded to the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment, which is creating a massive environmental disaster.
But he didn't call a press conference and invite reporters to ask questions. Nope. He sent out a tweet.
"I continue to be concerned about the impacts of the Feb 3 train derailment near East Palestine, OH, and the effects on families in the ten days since their lives were upended through no fault of their own," he tweeted. "It's important that families have access to useful & accurate information:"
He added that the Transportation Department is "actively engaged" in "supporting the investigation" while the Environmental Protection Agency is "monitoring indoor and outdoor air quality."
That's nice. They're "supporting" and "monitoring."
That's not to say Buttigieg hasn't made any public appearances since the incident. He did so Monday, and made fun of his previous failures (without mentioning the current one) and closed with a balloon joke.
"We've faced issues from container shipping to airline cancellations. Now we got balloons," he said.
Buttigieg chuckled and got some polite laughter from others in the room — but not from anyone else.
As Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican observed, "Nobody thinks this is funny."
That's not to say Buttigieg can't be serious. Also at Monday's appearance, Buttigieg addressed an issue of which he's a beneficiary — diversity hiring.
He claimed there are too many white people working in construction.
"We have heard way too many stories from generations past of infrastructure where you've got a neighborhood — often a neighborhood of color — that finally sees a project come to them, but everyone in the hard hats on that project ... doing the good-paying jobs, don't look like they came from anywhere near in that neighborhood," Buttigieg said.
Apart from the fact that he's playing in someone else's sand box — this is more the territory of the Labor Department — it also isn't necessarily true.
Despite the fact that Americans who identify as Latino or Hispanic only make up about 16% of the population, they make up about 30% of the construction workforce, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Furthermore, although construction work has traditionally been a male-dominated industry, women now make up about 10% of the workforce.
But on that subject, President Joe Biden has always pushed the envelope on identity politics expertise. For example:
• He chose Kamala Harris to be the first female vice president and the first one of color, despite the fact that every speech she delivers devolves into a nonsensical word salad, and every job she's given results in failure.
• He nominated Rachel Levine as the first transgender senior administration official, despite a less-than-stellar tenure as Pennsylvania secretary of health.
• He nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson to be the first Black female Supreme Court justice, despite a record of being soft on crimes against children.
• He nominated "gender fluid" Sam Brinton, who wears makeup and cross-dresses in women's clothing, to be a senior nuclear official. Brinton has been accused of being involved in two shoplifting incidents.
• He appointed Karine Jean-Pierre as the first Black, foreign-born, lesbian White House press secretary. Although a communications specialist, her word salads are as indecipherable as the vice president's.
And then there's Buttigieg, who was nominated as the first gay transportation secretary despite his lack of experience. But he thought he nonetheless had unique qualifications.
Buttigieg "said he has 'a personal love of transportation,' recounting train trips on Amtrak while in college, and said he proposed to his now-husband, Chasten, in an airport terminal," NPR reported.
Then he failed his first test as transportation secretary as a "no-show" during a supply chain crisis, while ships laden with goods were anchored off California ports.
His excuse: He was on a two-month "paternity leave" from mid-August to mid-October. Besides, he only said he liked trains and airports, remember?
When that was followed up with an FAA-airport crisis during the last holiday season, even far-left Democrats had lost patience.
"What's happening with the railroads, airlines & the supply chain is a result of a small city mayor being made the Secretary of Transportation as a means to pad his resume for President," tweeted Nina Turner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy.
It doesn't seem like that many years ago when the only criteria for major appointments were "the best and the brightest."
Syndicated radio host Jesse Kelly summed the problem up best in response to Biden's press secretary diversity hire.
"Think about how bad Karine Diversity Hire is at her job. Now sit back and think about the next generation of diversity-hire pilots, doctors, and surgeons doing their jobs as bad as she does hers," he said.
"Sleep tight."
Yeah. Let that sink in while you try to fall asleep.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.