"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government, and to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility."He even spins remorse -- "all levels of government" and "didn't fully do its job right" sound like he's trying to dodge as much of the "responsibility" as he can -- but this is still an unprecedented step for an administration that has remained unrepentant on even its most epic failures. Of course, even on 9/11 we didn't lose an entire city, so I guess this proves that even Rove has his limits.
On the other hand, the administration is rapidly running out of scapegoats. Gov. Blanco has been officially declared to have done her job properly by what may be the last genuinely nonpartisan government commission in DC, and Mayor Nagin is proving increasingly difficult to blame. Now Bush can't be held responsible for the actions of a bunch of racist cops in Gretna, aside from doing something about them at the time, but they messed up in so many other ways that I'm willing to chalk that up to the same incompetence they displayed everywhere else. Otherwise, it looks like nearly the whole mess ends up in their laps.
(And I hate being so cynical that I wonder about how much of the 'fewer deaths than expected' news is good, and how much of it is cover-up.)
So Bush actually took responsibility for something. Well, that is to be commended as far as it goes. Now that we've had some truth, let's start talking consequences. Responsibility means you deal with what you did. Maybe it's time to repeal a few of those tax breaks for Bush's super-rich buddies to pay for this mess. Or perhaps the administration should be forced to eat some crow by having someone with brains replace the cronies in FEMA and other emergency organizations. Ideally, Bush should be forced to resign by overwhelming outrage, but we're the reality-based community, so one step at a time. Besides, that would just leave us with Cheniac, which wouldn't improve matters anyway.
They're starting to sink. As Carville would say, time to throw them an anvil.
--
(/) Roland X
Luthor/Brainiac amalgam: "I kill you, and then...Armageddon, right on schedule."
No comments:
Post a Comment