Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Bush takes responsibility for Federal disaster response: Why I'm not impressed.
Click the title for the story.
The part that has the politicos in a buzz is the following quote from Bush: "And to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility. I want to know what went right and what went wrong,"
If he were willing to follow that up with an admission that the federal resonse was inadequate, that would be a noteworthy. But it seems the only prior displeasure -expressed- by Bush regarding the federal response was to say the results were not acceptable, nearly a week after Katrina made landfall. Indeed, as shown in this -timeline-, federal officials and Republican mouthpieces seemed very impressed with the relief effort even as the disaster unfolded. Bushes now famous -quote- to then head of FEMA Michael Brown, "Brownie, your doing a heck of a job" was issued on the same day he found the results of disaster relief unacceptable.
So while the rest of the world may stand in shock at the prospect that Bush has admitted to some sort of culpability in now taking responsibility for the federal response, does it really carry any meaning if he, and the wingnut spin machine, are convinced that said response was actually a great achievement? Once he comes out and admits that perhaps being photographed playing geetar and eating cake in the midst of the unfolding disaster was a mistake, then we're talking actual recognition of culpability. But saying he is responsible for something that is being spun as a masterful response to the disaster is not really any different than what we have grown to expect from this man anyway.
The part that has the politicos in a buzz is the following quote from Bush: "And to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility. I want to know what went right and what went wrong,"
If he were willing to follow that up with an admission that the federal resonse was inadequate, that would be a noteworthy. But it seems the only prior displeasure -expressed- by Bush regarding the federal response was to say the results were not acceptable, nearly a week after Katrina made landfall. Indeed, as shown in this -timeline-, federal officials and Republican mouthpieces seemed very impressed with the relief effort even as the disaster unfolded. Bushes now famous -quote- to then head of FEMA Michael Brown, "Brownie, your doing a heck of a job" was issued on the same day he found the results of disaster relief unacceptable.
So while the rest of the world may stand in shock at the prospect that Bush has admitted to some sort of culpability in now taking responsibility for the federal response, does it really carry any meaning if he, and the wingnut spin machine, are convinced that said response was actually a great achievement? Once he comes out and admits that perhaps being photographed playing geetar and eating cake in the midst of the unfolding disaster was a mistake, then we're talking actual recognition of culpability. But saying he is responsible for something that is being spun as a masterful response to the disaster is not really any different than what we have grown to expect from this man anyway.
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