REPUBLICANS STILL FAILING AMERICA ON NEW ORLEANS... AND EVERYTHING ELSE

Bush's failed Iraq policies cost the Republicans the House and Senate in 2006 and will devastate the party in 2008. But the seminal event where it finally clicked with most Americans that having George Bush in the White House-- whether one thought he was there legitimately or not-- happened two years ago. Rationally, no one can blame the hurricane part of Hurricane Katrina on Bush. But the catastrophe associated with it, for most Americans is what the Bush Regime is all about, at least domestically: incompetence plus an ineffectual philosophy of governance that works for the very rich and leaves everyone else out to dry-- or, in this case, drown.

Those who weren't sharp enough to understand that the mantra of Grover Norquist, the Bush Regime's Ideologue-in-Chief-- that line about shrinking government down so it was small enough to drown in a bath tub-- was actually playing out in New Orleans, might have still understood the nature of Bushism as it was expressed by the #1 Republican in the Congress, Planet Denny Hastert: "It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed." People, American citizens, were still dying in the streets when Hastert said there would be no federal help for New Orleans. The Bush Regime itself tried to present a kinder, gentler face and made all kinds of promises, but for them, of course, the tragedy of New Orleans was another way to enrich themselves, their cronies and campaign contributors.

Bush is the first American president to have lost an American city. His regime's efforts to rescue New Orleans have been as ineffectual as everything else they say they are trying to accomplish-- although the Insider self-enrichment they never talk about has proceeded at a healthy enough clip.  This morning's NY Times features Barack Obama's plan for the actual recovery in New Orleans. Bush's greatest domestic failure and broken symbol of whatever bond he had with the American people can only be highlighted by Obama's and other Democrats' plans to bring back one of the great American cities. It isn't something you have heard Romney, Giuliani, or any of the other pathetic pygmies™ discussing.

The Gulf Coast restoration, Mr. Obama said, has been weighed down by red tape that has kept billions of dollars from reaching Louisiana communities. As president, he said, he would streamline the bureaucracy, strengthen law enforcement to curb a rise in crime and immediately close the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet in order to restore wetlands to protect against storms.

Mr. Obama also said that he would seek to lessen the influence of politics in the Federal Emergency Management Agency by giving its director a fixed term, similar to the structure of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FEMA director would serve a six-year term, under Mr. Obama’s plan, and report directly to the president.

...“Let New Orleans be the place where we strengthen those bonds of trust, where a city rises up on a new foundation that can be broken by no storm,” Mr. Obama is planning to say Sunday, according to remarks provided by his aides. “Let New Orleans become the example of what America can do when we come together, not a symbol for what we couldn’t do.”

Tomorrow John Edwards and Hillary Clinton will both attend a summit conference dealing with the rebuilding of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Bush's Gulf Coast coordinator is in New Orleans, busy playing politics and insulting the state and city leadership. Of course all 9 of the pygmies™ are otherwise engaged, each somewhere rasing money from fat cat donors. Bush himself will be in Seattle desperately trying to resuscitate the wrecked career of one of his rubber stamp congressmen, Dave Reichert, a lackluster backbencher about to be swept from office by a brilliant and outspoken Darcy Burner, whose campaign is raising as much money this week from online donors as Reichert is from the wealthy contributors eager to get their pictures taken with Bush for $2,300 each. (You can help Darcy make a monkey of Bush here.)