Katrina’s damage lingers for Bush

[Rose Siding]

Many, including Republican lawmakers, see storm as president’s undoing



For Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.), three images define George W. Bush's presidency: Bush throwing out the first pitch of the 2001 World Series at Yankee Stadium, Bush with a megaphone atop the rubble of the World Trade Center -- and Bush staring out the window as Air Force One traversed the Gulf Coast thousands of feet above the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

The first two images epitomize strength and resolution, the image the Bush White House likes to cultivate. But in one year's time, the last one -- of the president as aloof, out of touch, even befuddled -- all but erased the memory of the others, according to pollsters, pundits and Republican politicians who say they have suffered in the wake of the president's decline.
...
The president will appear Monday and Tuesday on the Gulf Coast to mark the first anniversary of the hurricane......Bush aides said the president will accept responsibility for the botched federal response while stressing that the government has learned from the Katrina mistakes and promising to see through the reconstruction of the Gulf Coast.
...
"Crises create opportunities," said Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.). "This could have been an opportunity to redo the school systems with free-market principles. It was an opportunity to not just hand over contracts to unions at whatever cost. Now, that's spilt water over the levees."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14489707/

[derby378]

1. We've seen what "free-market" principles have done to schools...

Our children's education, nutrition, and even safety is auctioned off to the lowest bidder.

[Bob3]

2. and of course Feeney proves what an idiot he is

by jabbering about unions and free market principles when a city was underwater. Jesus. Of course what has happened is the same band of crooks and cronies that did such a wonderful job in Iraq found themselves with yet move government cash coming their way.

God what a den of crooks.

[Rose Siding]

5. He's also rather selective in chosing those defining images

What about this one?

[journalist3072]

11. Feeney thinks we need literacy tests for black voters again

In November 2000, in the midst of the Florida debacle, the Palm Beach Post quoted him as saying:

"Voter confusion is not a reason for whining or crying or having a revote. It may be a reason to require literacy tests."

I always think about that quote whenever I hear his name or read something about him.

[soothsayer]

3. Um, when are they going to finish cleaning up? A year aiin't enuff

to even RECOVER ALL THE BODIES with this douchebag and his merry band of idiots.

[jobycom]

4. Am I the only one sickened by this headline? This whole article?

How about "Bush's incompetence lingers for Katrina ravaged region?" I think they have the victim and the bloody bastard criminal confused.

And Tom Feeney is welcome to NEVER be in my presence. He wants to perform experiments on the region to try and salvage his failed ideological concepts rather than help the region recover? Screw Godwin's Law, that's the kind of social experimentation at the expense of human dignity that Hitler or Stalin would have done.

Rebuild the damn city the way the residents want it rebuilt, don't force your imbecilic "ideas" on people who don't want them. Bastard.

ANd man, I just cracked up over his clever little "spilt water over the levees" quip. Damn, that's funny. He missed an opportunity to work "gone with the wind" into his little analysis. Wonder if he goes to the VA hospitals and picks on parapalegics. "Hey, that missing leg is really just an opportunity to improve your hopping skills. You should get a BANG out of it! Get it?"

[gratuitous]

6. Yeah, that headline's a keeper

As if one year later, Bush was out of a job living in a trailer.

And Feeney's a laff riot. Maybe he should hit the comedy circuit after the voters give him his walking papers.

[jobycom]

7. Is there a chance he'll lose?

Feeney, I mean? Please tell me there is.

[gratuitous]

9. No idea. Floridians?

Feeney's probably deeply embedded in some Republican stronghold, immune to the ordinary pressures on a politician. But wouldn't it be delicious to see him turned out of office for being such an insensitive jerk?

[Rose Siding]

8. The msn home page headline is "WP: Katrina woes linger for Bush"

Even worse! Did HE lose his home or loved ones or business or his very PLACE in the world?

[jobycom]

10. Hopefully

he will lose his him and job and place in the world over it. But not soon enough, I suppose.

[jobycom]

12. Interestingly, they've altered that headline

It's not the banner headline, and it now reads "Bush still fights Katrina damage." Still not a very accurate headline, but a lot less disgusting. Make that a little less disgusting. Further down the page is an opinion article "Bush borke promises to Gulf Coast." THAT should be the banner.

[Rose Siding]

13. Go here- to msn's home page

(not msnbc, and probably seen by more people)

http://www.msn.com/

[Kagemusha]

14. Everyone sees they did to N.O. what they did to Iraq anyway.

That's why people are saying, with only mild sarcasm, we should get Hezbollah in there.

[ninkasi]

16. That's exactly the reason Hezbollah is as strong as it is

It's government's rejection of citizen's needs that make organizations like Hezbollah possible. As far as the dig at unions, I'd rather have reconstruction done by union works, earning union wages, than simply handed over to Halliburton. The work would get done faster, and better, and it would have been a lot better for the local economy.

[Skittles]

15. no you're not the only one

the author would have you believe bush was a real leader who was side-lined by the forces of nature, not an incompetent piece of shit whose corporate-media enhanced IMAGE as a leader was damaged when Katrina blew the curtain away

[gulliver]

17. Naturally Republicans want it to be Katrina.

Disgusting article. Republicans marched lock-step with Bush into Iraq, starting with their cheerleading for the idiot in the 2002 elections. They created Hurricane Iraq. They want their fall from grace (not just Bush's) to be the result of an act of God rather than their own shame.

Sure, Katrina shows how incompetent and clueless the Republicans are, but it's only one example of many. Bush is basically driving the country around like a drunken fool, and the Republicans are to blame.