Let's Cut It To the Quick

There's been a lot of speculation over who's at fault for what will surely amount to thousands of people dead in New Orleans. Blame #1 goes to Katrina, no doubt about that. It's whether there's more blame to spread around that is the remaining question.

But near as we can now tell, not that many people died in the initial storm. The greatest loss of life will by far be the result of New Orleaneans not getting out of the city. Whether they'll die through disease, dehydration or other maladies, most will die because they hadn't the means, the strength, the wherewithal, or the luck to have been saved.

"They were warned!" you might say, and you'd be right. But I must say, if I were a poor, car-less and lifelong citizen of the big easy, the idea of leaving my home would be anything but easy. This is all just talk though. Let's get to the meat.

Much has been made over whether or not Governor Blanco asked Bush for emergency assistance. Reports conflict as to whether or not she did. We'll arrive at the truth eventually, but for now, that's academic.

Let's play a game here. Let's play like the governor didn't ask. The levee broke. The waters rushed in to New Orleans. Camera-laden helicopters filled the skies over the city and we saw hundreds of shots of people asking for help and being rescued. The 24-hour cable channels--and almost everyone else--were all over it. It was riveting can't turn away from it television.

Now I want you to consider the president, finally having returned to Washington DC from his 5-week vacation that he cut 2 days short when the publicity over his inaction became too difficult to defray. Are we asked to believe by Bush supporters that our compassionately conservative president watched Fox News transfixed by the same footage we all saw...saw the death and destruction, saw the hell of the Superdome, saw the even worse conditions at the Convention Center, saw all the abject need for food, for water, for leadership...and dismissed presidential responsibility because he hadn't gotten a call from the Governor?

Does he think he couldn't pick up the phone himself? Is this a strong leader? Is this the moral character of a Christian man? Would this guy have let the Tommy Hilfiger-wearing wealthy sit on Beverly Hills rooftops for five days if the catastrophe had happened there instead?

Bush just appointed himself lead investigator for the commission that will investigate what went wrong.

Sometimes when I think things couldn't get any more bizarre...they do.