Washington Rejoice! The Human Crisis Is Over, So You Can Get Back To Work
And so the war begins. In Washington and in the press, partisan politics, as always, will rule the day. Katrina’s human crisis now over, and recovery phases beginning, there is no more hesitancy to let loose the dogs of war (i.e. point the blame).
The Washington Times: “The vultures of the venomous left are attacking on two fronts, first that the president didn't do what the incompetent mayor of New Orleans and the pouty governor of Louisiana should have done, and didn't, in the early hours after Katrina loosed the deluge on the city that care and good judgment forgot. Ray Nagin, the mayor, ordered a "mandatory" evacuation a day late, but kept the city's 2,000 school buses parked and locked in neat rows when there was still time to take the refugees to higher ground. The bright-yellow buses sit ruined now in four feet of dirty water. Then the governor, Kathleen Blanco, resisted early pleas to declare martial law, and her dithering opened the way for looters, rapists and killers to make New Orleans an unholy hell. Gov. Haley Barbour did not hesitate in neighboring Mississippi, and looters, rapists and killers have not turned the streets of Gulfport and Biloxi into killing fields.”
AP: “The administration on Tuesday struggled to deflect calls for an accounting of who was responsible for a hurricane response that even Bush acknowledged was inadequate. There were increasing calls for the resignation or firing of Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.”
Senator Clinton and others are already calling for independent investigators, while the other side of the isle is gearing up to build a steel wall of defense around the President.
While I believe that the President, being the chief executive of the executive branch, bears the responsibility that is due all those in a position of leadership, for all intents and purposes, he is to blame for nothing more than inadequate symbolic response.
The tragedy here is that while the powers that be try to use this as another wedge to attack the strong majority in the House, Senate and White House, nothing of substance will come of it. Yet another commission, with yet more findings, and more suggestions will result in more legislation and more political posturing that wont fix the problem: a bloated and top heavy bureaucracy that has too much red-tape to act effectively. Your tax dollars at work.
The Washington Times: “The vultures of the venomous left are attacking on two fronts, first that the president didn't do what the incompetent mayor of New Orleans and the pouty governor of Louisiana should have done, and didn't, in the early hours after Katrina loosed the deluge on the city that care and good judgment forgot. Ray Nagin, the mayor, ordered a "mandatory" evacuation a day late, but kept the city's 2,000 school buses parked and locked in neat rows when there was still time to take the refugees to higher ground. The bright-yellow buses sit ruined now in four feet of dirty water. Then the governor, Kathleen Blanco, resisted early pleas to declare martial law, and her dithering opened the way for looters, rapists and killers to make New Orleans an unholy hell. Gov. Haley Barbour did not hesitate in neighboring Mississippi, and looters, rapists and killers have not turned the streets of Gulfport and Biloxi into killing fields.”
AP: “The administration on Tuesday struggled to deflect calls for an accounting of who was responsible for a hurricane response that even Bush acknowledged was inadequate. There were increasing calls for the resignation or firing of Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.”
Senator Clinton and others are already calling for independent investigators, while the other side of the isle is gearing up to build a steel wall of defense around the President.
While I believe that the President, being the chief executive of the executive branch, bears the responsibility that is due all those in a position of leadership, for all intents and purposes, he is to blame for nothing more than inadequate symbolic response.
The tragedy here is that while the powers that be try to use this as another wedge to attack the strong majority in the House, Senate and White House, nothing of substance will come of it. Yet another commission, with yet more findings, and more suggestions will result in more legislation and more political posturing that wont fix the problem: a bloated and top heavy bureaucracy that has too much red-tape to act effectively. Your tax dollars at work.
