Given that it's an election year, Gov. Nathan Deal surely expected criticism from Democrats and his GOP challengers over the state's response to the epic traffic jam that ground Atlanta to an icy halt last week.
But Deal might not have expected a fellow Republican governor to pile on.
In a Tuesday speech, South Carolina's Nikki Haley told a Charleston civic club that her brother was stuck on an interstate in Atlanta for 27 hours during the gridlock that stranded tens of thousands on roads and thousands of students in classrooms. From the Charleston Regional Business Journal:
She complimented South Carolina's Department of Transportation, Department of Public Safety and other law enforcement agencies, as well as the state's National Guard, for their work during the storm.
"When you go through a storm, whether it's a hurricane or winter storm, our team stands ready," Haley said. "I am very proud of team South Carolina and the way they handled the storm."
Now, some might be suspicious that, by pointing to Georgia, Haley was trying to persuade her audience that the closing of Charleston's all-important Ravenel Bridge, which froze over and was closed, was small potatoes by comparison.
In any case, Deal spokesman Brian Robinson offered this when confronted with Haley's jab:
"To say South Carolina did a better job responding to the storm than Georgia is like saying Tennessee did a better job than Louisiana responding to Hurricane Katrina. We experienced completely different weather events."
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