Bush Cites Progress in Gulf Coast Visit
President Bush returned to the devastated Gulf Coast today promising to continue federal assistance, and eagerly pointing out signs of progress…. Mr. Bush, his presidency still marred one year later by the slow government response to the storm, spent the afternoon demonstrating his empathy and optimism in meetings with residents and officials along the storm-wracked coast. The trip marked an attempt by Mr. Bush to recast the legacy of the year before, when he lingered on the other side of the country before cutting short his vacation to deal with the crisis.
In typical and characteristic fashion, Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader has returned to the Gulf Coast to flog the dead horse that has been his Administration’s response to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Frankly, I fail to understand what it is that the man thinks there is to celebrate. Yes, there has been progress, but it’s difficult to say with any degree of certainty whether it’s because or in spite the federal government. Given what has taken place over the past year, I’m inclined to go with “in spite of”.
No one expected perfection, especially given the breadth and scope of the damage and misery generated by Katrina. Nonetheless, I think we could and should reasonably have expected more than carefully scripted photo ops , empty promises (kindly refer to Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader’s Jackson Square speech last September), and unparalleled ineptitude, incompetence, and inefficiency.
Even Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader’s appearance in Biloxi, MS (refer to the picture) was manufactured for maximum propaganda value. Mississippi’s Gulf Coast is a much more reliably supportive and welcoming enviroment for this President. New Orleans, however, is a much different story. Yes, part of the problem is the “we’re poor, you owe us” mentality of so many in New Orleans. Nonetheless, no reasonable person could say that the federal government has held up their end of the bargain over the past year.
In Washington and around the country, Katrina continued to occupy a prominent place in the political arena. “One year later, neither the tragedy Katrina caused — the flooding of New Orleans and the devastation of the Gulf Coast — nor the tragedy that it exposed — the extent of the federal government’s failure to provide a life of security and dignity to all of our citizens — have been adequately addressed,” Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House leader, said in a statement.
Mr. Bush was heading to New Orleans after his visit to Mississippi, and his reception in that city was likely to be cooler than that in Biloxi. A year later, New Orleans is struggling and much smaller than it was before it was savaged by wind and water. The federal response to the disaster there was widely considered much less effective than it was in Mississippi. And Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana and one of the state’s senators, Mary Landrieu, are Democrats who have not been shy about criticizing the administration.
There are probably many reasons why the federal government’s response was so much more effective in Mississippi than in New Orleans. The biggest reason no doubt has “politics” written all over it. Mississippi is a reliable, safely Republican state. New Orleans is anything but friendly to Republican interests. Friends help friends, and while that may be overly simplistic, I do believe there is at least a grain of truth there.
State and local politicians in Lousiana and New Orleans have at times been openly and jusitifiably hostile towards the federal government in general, and FEMA in particular. The stumbling and generally inept response to the needs of Lousiana and New Orleans was, is, and continues to be an embarrassment.
I wonder if this would have been the case had Katrina devastated the Hamptons? Hmmm….
