and conservatives piling on doesn’t. Senator Santorum made perfectly defensible remarks when he wondered whether “those who decide to ride it out” during a mandatory evacuation should face some penalty given that their voluntary risk-taking puts rescuers at risk. There have been plenty of interviews of people along the Gulf Coast, in the path of Katrina, who elected to stay put, i.e. “decided to ride it out.” People too old or too young, too infirm or too poor to escape have made no such decision. The fair-minded get the difference.