NOT ONE REPUG VOTED IN FAVOR OF ESTABLISHING AN INDEPENDENT NON-PARTISAN COMMISSION TO INVESTIGATE KATRINA AFTERMATH

As sickening as it was to watch the snake who will soon be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court sit all day and worm his way out of answering any substantive questions while smiling blandly at inappropriate random moments, there was something even worse happening in the U.S. Senate. The Republicans there scuttled an attempt by Hillary Clinton to establish an independent, non-partisan panel patterned after the 9/11 Commission to investigate what went wrong with federal, state and local governments' response to Hurricane Katrina. It was a decent idea from Clinton, which would have been asked to make recommendations on how to improve the government's disaster response apparatus, but failed to attract a single Republican vote. Clinton got only 44 votes, all from Democrats and independent Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont. Fifty-four Republicans all voted no. The cowardly (far right-wing) Louisiana Republican freshman in the Senate, David Vitter, hid under his bed and refused to come to work for the vote. Recall is already being discussed. (Louisiana's senior senator, Mary Landrieu voted yes.) Congressional Republicans-- and Bush-- fiercely resisted the establishment of the 9/11 Commission as well but were shamed into by public opinion polls which showed overwhelming support for the idea. And guess what! In a CNN/USA Today Gallup poll taken this week, 70% favor an independent panel to investigate the government's response to Katrina. The Republicans, of course, want a panel they can control so they can make sure the official report doesn't damage Bush's already severely tarnished reputation.