Ouch
It’s a sad day to be a Republican.
Imagine…you’re watching Sean Hannity like a good Republican. You begin to parrot the party talking points, about how it’s the local governments fault despite both FEMA and Bush himself stating prior to the hurricane that they would do everything in their power, without getting bogged down by bureaucracy, to help the people of the gulf coast region. You selectively forget that though, and parrot on and on about how the media is blaming the president when really it’s that black mayor and female governor’s fault.
Then yesterday, you have Bush come out and take responsibility for government failures in response to the hurricane. OUCH! It really must feel like the RNC was lying to you, as well as everyone else. You! Their faithful parrot! Imagine that. It’s gotta hurt. And then, when they realized they weren’t going to be able to spin their way out of this one, surprise! They admit for once that they are wrong….really wrong. And they didn’t warn you to shut your mouth.
I mean, I spent a substantial portion of yesterday arguing with people that Bush was in fact responsible for the utterly inept response in many, many ways. Imagine my suprise, when mid-flame-war, Bush came out and won it for me! It’s like the first time ever that I felt like Bush was on my side.
Then today, the Non-Partisan Congressional Research Service Report on Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina is released stating that in fact the governor of LA acted in a timely and legal manner to secure federal relief, and that the federal government for some reason simply didn’t react for several days.
You’ve been caught with your pants down guys. You finally managed to bungle something so fucking badly that people woke up a little, and won’t accept your spin. For once. The report states “Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco requested by letter dated August 27, 2005…that the President declare an emergency for the State of Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina for the time period from August 26, 2005 and continuing pursuant to (applicable Federal statute)” and “Governor Blanco’s August 27, 2005 request for an emergency declaration also included her determination…that ‘the incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments and that supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of disaster.”
Now, of course Bush is only saying he is accepting responsibility as a form of damage control. It is one thing to *say* one accepts responsibility, and another thing entirely to actually *take* some responsibility. Mike Brown, the inept, utterly unqualified director of FEMA that Bush appointed, took some responsibility. He realized he was in WAY over his head, that he was called out, and he resigned.
As Bill Maher said on air to Bush the other night, “On your watch, we’ve lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two Trade Centers, a piece of the Pentagon and the City of New Orleans…Maybe you’re just not lucky!” He forgot to add the swelling number of lives lost in Iraq, but his point is still valid.
Take responsibility Mr. President, you’re bad at your job. You’re in way over your head.
Follow the example of Mike Brown, RESIGN NOW!
