Trouble Ahead, Trouble Behind
Sun Sep 11, 2005 at 07:26:11 PM PDT
Goofy frontman for the GOP, Ken Mehlman, is quoted in
The Washington Post about the post Katrina fallout in Washington, D.C. :
The public is going to look in coming months and year and say how have leaders responded to this . . . and what have they done"to protect the nation.."
Apparently, Ken didn't get the memo. From the New York Times :
...Richard A. Falkenrath, a former homeland security adviser in the Bush White House, said the chief federal failure was not anticipating that the city and state would be so compromised. He said the response exposed "false advertising" about how the government has been transformed four years after the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks.
That would be the Republican government led by George W. Bush. You know, the ones who insisted that everything had changed after 9/11? Yet Katrina has revealed precisely how little has been achieved in the four years since the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon.
Under Bush, the nation's ability to respond to disasters - both natural and man-made- has been greatly diminished, evidenced by the prolonged suffering endured by thousands of New Orleanians as they desperately awaited evacuation from the city. The money needed to upgrade our deteriorating infrastructure, fund projects addressing situations such as the levees in New Orleans and provide adequate resources for first responders have been diverted toward tax cuts for the wealthy and an unnecessary war that lingers on with no end in sight.
Ken Mehlman and the Republicans had their chance. Protecting the nation and preparing for the "next" disaster was precisely the charge they had assigned themselves to keep. They above all others, especially those suspicious liberals, would protect us. It was the basis of George W. Bush's entire political survival. It was the theme of his re-election campaign.
But it is clear now, that Bush is incapable of governing the nation and managing its numerous and vast priorities. Especially now, when his already flailing Administration is likely to be crippled by the fallout from the Federal government's failure to respond promptly and responsibly to the Mississippi Delta. In a recent poll, in which respondents were asked if they would vote for Bush or his predecessors going back to Carter, Bush lost to every single one. Even Jimmy Carter...by eight points.
The real quesiton now is surviving the last three years of his Presidency and beginning to establish a new government in the 2006 mid-terms. It is the first chance to hold accountable those Republicans who have led the nation so disastrously off into the wilds of an ultra-conservative, theocratic vision for us all, by taking away the President's Congress and preventing any continued action on Mr. Bush and the GOP's wreckless agenda.
It is the very least we owe to the victims of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.
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