A Massive Failure of the Bush Administration

[Chichiri]

LTTE I just dashed off to my local paper . . .


Dear Editor,

Last month, in a letter to the Forum, I mentioned "knee-jerk conservatives;" those who would support President Bush even if he replaced the nation's entire medical industry with a couple of leafy spurges. As it turns out, if you replace “medical industry” with “FEMA,” I was right on the money. At the time, however, I assumed that these "knee-jerk conservatives" were in the majority. I was wrong, and I apologize to conservatives for having assumed that.

There are no doubt a handful of partisan hacks, both amateur and professional, who continue to support Bush come hell or high water -- literally. But save for these few lonely stragglers, everyone in America now recognizes the response to Hurricane Katrina as a massive failure of the Bush administration.

The administration itself, of course, quickly placed the blame on state and local officials (ironically, in the same breath that they accused Democrats of playing the "blame game"), and indeed they share some responsibility. But the national response was worse than bad; for those first critical days, it was nonexistent. This despite the fact that Bush, in a State of Emergency declaration signed two days before landfall, took responsibility for coordinating "all disaster relief efforts" in Louisiana.

This isn't the "blame game." This is the American people holding its federal government accountable. Many Republicans forgot how to do this when Bill Clinton left office, but they are now starting to remember. Only one question remains: do we dare take any more of this?