The worst thing of Bush's speech in Jackson Square that the American people heard it, think it's happening or has happened, and think New Orleanians are asking for more money.
I haven't seen any polls but my impression is that Bush supporters were outraged that any money at all was being promised to New Orleans in the first place.
I was telling someone last night that I wanted to go to the rally for Katrina victims on Capitol Hill yesterday but found out at the last minute and just could not juggle my schedule. I guess it was reported on TV because he wanted to know who the woman was who was asking for more money.
But one of the women at the table, a liberal, was on my side.
But she was down on FEMA. Nobody outside New Orleans seems to understand how much of the catastrophe must be laid at the feet of the Army Corps of Engineers.
If we have learned nothing else from this, I hope that people who are involved in state governments have learned how incompetent the federal government is. I don't mean that in an ugly way, they are well intentioned, they just don't get the job done.
No accountability, I guess. If you're immune from accountability, then what motivates you do to anything but cash your paycheck every two weeks?
New York after 9/11 came out ok because the area that was hurt was the financial district. People with clout, people who can pull strings and make things happen. Rudy Giuliani, for one. |
