Cross-posted from michiganliberal.com
Back in the 1940's,
a sign used to hang on the wall of the El Reno Federal Reformatory. The Federal Marshall for the Western District of Missouri, Fred M. Canfil saw that sign one day and thought it would make a suitable gift to his friend, the new President of the United States, Harry Truman. For the rest of Truman's time in office, there was no doubt who was in charge. The sign on Truman's desk said it all: "The Buck Stops Here." As he left office in 1953, Truman explained:
The President--whoever he is--has to decide. He can't pass the buck to anybody. No one else can do the deciding for him. That's his job.
How far we have fallen.
Today,
even the monstrously Republican editorial page of the
Detroit News has figured that out:
Only strong, decisive leadership can keep a natural disaster from becoming an ongoing tragedy.
The horrible toll Hurricane Katrina is taking on the people of New Orleans, as well as other places in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, cries for a leader, a recognizable and reassuring figure who has the authority to put an end to the suffering and mounting body count.
Neither the governors of those states nor the mayors of the affected cities have risen to the challenge. Katrina has yet to produce a Rudy Giuliani, the New York mayor who rallied his city after September 11.
But this was a job for the president, and George W. Bush engaged too late.
Bush waited until Friday -- four days after Katrina made landfall along the southern coast -- to visit the area, and when he did he declared the federal response "unacceptable." What a mammoth understatement.
For days, local officials had been calling for help. For buses to evacuate the homeless. For food and water. For troops to maintain order.
What they got from Washington was a trickle of help, when they needed a flood to match the one that washed across their communities. Louisiana deserved the same George W. Bush who walked the streets of New York with Giuliani in 2001, reassuring residents of a devastated city that he would keep them safe.
-snip-
The United States has the resources to get the necessary food, water and medical supplies to the Katrina victims. It has the resources to move people swiftly out of the destroyed cities. It has the resources to secure a chaotic community.
What it lacked in this case was a leader to deploy those resources.
I'm sick of hearing Mr. Bush and all of his parrots tell us that "now isn't the time to point fingers." Bullshit. With untold numbers still in need of rescue, a city in ruins, and hundreds of thousands homeless - this situation is far from being resolved. We have a long way to go. Putting the heat on Mr. Bush, Karl Rove, and Condi "shop-till-you-drop" Rice - and keeping it there - might, just might encourage them to get their miserable act together. In other words, let's put the heat on them while there's still time for it to make a difference - not years from now in some legislative committee while the public is again focused on another wardrobe malfunction or some other missing affluent white girl.
I know Mr. Bush lacks the mental depth to deal with "hypotheticals" -
he's said so many times. But for those of us with an imagination, I wonder...what Governor George W. Bush, or any number of his idiot hairdo apologists would say if, for instance, Bill Clinton - or perhaps Al Gore had allowed what happened in New Orleans to happen in Houston. Do you think Bush or Limbaugh would miss the opportunity to point fingers at them? Gimmie a break.
Mr. Bush must now realize that his exortations that "now is not the time to place blame", etc. aren't working. Today,
we see in the Washington Post that Bush administration "has shifted blame" onto the Governor of Louisiana and the Mayor of New Orleans (I would have said that Bush is
trying to shift blame, but then I don't have my corporate masters to please).
No fingerpointing my ass! This is war, Mr. Bush, and you and all of your "ownership society" thugs will pay. You will pay dearly.