Hurricane blame: Dems, GOP engage in one-upmanship
As New Orleans and the rest of the battered Gulf Coast continue drying out from Hurricane Katrina, now roundly characterized as the worst natural disaster in the nation’s history, the inevitable political sniping has swung into motion. Latching onto the federal government’s slow response, Democrats are firing volleys at President Bush and Federal Emergency Management Agency head Michael Brown, characterizing the former as insensitive and the latter as a bungling incompetent. Republicans are focused on laying blame at the feet of inept Democratic officials in Louisiana. Partisans on both sides have fallen in lock step with their respective party leaders, which is one of the real shames of current United States politics. In this insidious game of follow-your-leaders, logic, truth and fairness don’t matter nearly as much as defending your side to the proverbial death, no matter how illogical or irrefutable the evidence.
Rather than single out Bush or Brown as a potential fall guy, Democrats should recognize that no amount of advance planning could nullify the damaging effects of a hurricane so large in scope. They should be willing to admit that no one could have predicted this, and that even if they had, the enormity of the damage and dislocation would literally require keeping a small army on perpetual standby, ready to respond to a “just in case” scenario.
Likewise, Republicans should stop being so pig-headed in defense of the President and his handpicked choice to head FEMA. The response could have been quicker, especially with all the heightened disaster planning emphasis since 9/11, which took place four years ago. If this is the best the federal government can do, given all the touted improvements in terms of agency consolidation and coordination, the pre-9/11 era doesn’t look so bad.
The basic truth is that Hurricane Katrina hit the South with such fury and destruction that even the greatest presidents in history probably couldn’t have done much better had they been in office. But a fair criticism concerns the swiftness, or lack thereof, with which the federal government moved to marshal its aid forces. Bush and Brown, along with state leaders, should be held accountable for explaining any laggardness that occurred.
Instead, we have caterwauling on both sides, none of which deals with assessing the appropriate degree of accountability or responsibility. It’s all part of the political game of one-upmanship, and both parties are guilty. Want proof? Do you doubt for a second that had Bill Clinton been president when this happened, and things unfolded exactly the same way, that the post-Katrina Republican and Democrat roles would be reversed? We don’t.