Today, conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer blasts away at "Where to Point the Fingers" in the Hurricane Katrina fiasco. After cricitizing the mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana (gotta be even-handed here, I supposed), Krauthammer the conservative Republican totally lays into Michael Brown, the Republican Congress, and President Bush. In my opinion, this is dead-on accurate:
3. The head of FEMA. Late, slow and in way over his head. On Thursday, Sept. 2, he said on national television that he didn't even know there were people in the convention center, when anybody watching television could see them there, destitute and desperate. Maybe in his vast bureaucracy he can assign three 20-year-olds to watch cable news and give him updates every hour on what in hell is going on.4. The president. Late, slow, and simply out of tune with the urgency and magnitude of the disaster. The second he heard that the levees had been breached in New Orleans, he should have canceled his schedule and addressed the country on national television to mobilize it both emotionally and physically to assist in the disaster. His flyover on the way to Washington was the worst possible symbolism. And his Friday visit was so tone-deaf and politically disastrous that he had to fly back three days later.
5. Congress. Now as always playing holier-than-thou. Perhaps it might ask itself who created the Department of Homeland Security in the first place. The congressional response to all crises is the same -- rearrange the bureaucratic boxes, but be sure to add one extra layer. The past four years of DHS have been spent principally on bureaucratic reorganization (and real estate) instead of, say, a workable plan for as predictable a disaster as a Gulf Coast hurricane.
Let's just emphasize and briefly expand upon a few points. 1) the head of FEMA is hopelessly "over his head" and should be fired immediately; 2) President Bush was "late, slow, and out of tune," not to mention "tone deaf" in this crisis (we won't even get into his mother's breathtaking arrogant and insensitive remarks); and 3) the Republican Congress is a bunch of grandstanding, "holier-than-thou," pass-the-buck buffoons who won't take responsibility for their own actions.
If these people worked for any one of us, we'd fire them all in a heartbeat for gross incompetence. But wait a minute, they all DO work for us. Starting this November in Virginia, and then in November 2006 and November 2008, we can send these clowns a clear message: we're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore. Let's do it!