Louisiana Republican Congressman Richard Baker on the Benefits of Hurricane Katrina

(Tom Huckin's on the Rhetoricians for Peace listserv)

Recently a Republican Congressman from Louisiana, one Richard Baker, was quoted in national newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, as having been overheard telling lobbyists in a private conversation: "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."

This has of course provoked quite an outpouring of national outrage, to the point where Rep. Baker has issued a "correction" on his website:

What I remember expressing, in a private conversation with a housing advocate and member of my staff, was that we have been trying for decades to clean up New Orleans public housing to provide decent housing for residents, and now it looks like God is finally making us do it.

Admittedly, there is far too little contextual information to make any sort of determination, but just for fun, just as a matter of speculation based on stylistic factors alone, which of these two versions strikes you as the sort of utterance that a politician would make in a private conversation with two close acquaintances?

Tom