there's nothing like a little disaster...

There's nothing like a disaster to pump up the power of the bully pulpit and make the Shoemaker-in Chief look presidential.

Of a sudden, a president slogging deep down in a summer turd mine of failed policies, scandals, cosmic gas prices, and a bloody war that's slipped in favor of the citizens including even of many in his own party, can step out of hiding and into the daylight.

Now he can don that flight suit and the 9-11 firemen's hat he keeps at ready so he can strut around looking competent to lead and responsive to people.

Monday, Virginia Republican Senator John Warner, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, freshly back in Washington after facing tough questions at home about the war said he intends to summon Defense Bimbo Donald Rumsfeld to do some 'splain'.

Then Hurricane Katrina blew in and that story got blown off the front page and is laying wet in a ditch somewhere. 

It's a real, world class disaster and we bet it's an answer to a prayer Karl Rove never thought of praying.

It's walking the dog with an Act of God.

(Bill Clinton was so good at stepping up presidentially to disasters,  commandeering the front pages and making Gingrich apoplectic).

Now, conservative media and the Bush Administration are advocating federal welfare, federal bail-out, federal intervention, and a whole lot of federal spending on the shattered Gulf states. (Or Golf states as the president would say).

Suddenly, the faith-based crowd are born-again Big Government liberals pushing a Big Government solution.

Welcome to our world--where Big Government benevolence and treasure is for people, not the Big Friends of the Big Government.

How did this become so important to the righties? We're afraid they're not acting on a new attitude of benevolence for the hoi polloi.

Bush is in trouble politically and they're just happy that something changed the subject. They were getting tired of having to defend a disintegrating situation in Iraq and a president whose vacation has been dogged by the mournful face of Cindy Sheehan doggedly asking the question that's on so many lips: Our people dying in this grubby war--for what?

So it's wall-to-wall disaster on Hannity, Limbaugh, O'Reilly, etc, etc. RadioEqualizer bemoans that the major networks did normal programming all day. He even praised Pat Robertson's (who has his own reasons to change the subject) 700 Club coverage.

Bush made one of the least inspiring speeches in his long lackluster list of less than inspirational speeches. The New York Times in an editorial called it "an address of a quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast." But of course, it was (rightfully) at the top of the news just because he made it.

Before you get all self-righteous about us blaming Bush for causing the hurricane for political gains, get that we don't believe he and Karl Rove have a pipeline to God to order up such a thing. We must say, though, if they did--we wouldn't put a little well-timed disaster-placement past them.

Even this will blow over. Meanwhile, Bush failure marches on:

-Today more than 800 Iraqis died in a stampede that started from a rumor of a suicide bomber. 800.

-Still no Constitution in Iraq and few think they'll come up with one that's ratafiable.

-Congress is reassembling soon with earfuls of the complaints of Americans about Iraq.

-Indictments in the Karl Rove/Valeries Plame treason case will be announced soon.

-The investigation of Tom Delay and Jack Abramoff will be bearing more fruit this Fall.

-Gasoline isn't expected to get much cheaper any time soon.

Have there been any Missions Accomplished? Not really. Reality is always lurking--maybe 2006 will be our new reality.

Comments

[drool]

Today more than 800 Iraqis died in a stampede that started from a rumor of a suicide bomber. 800.<<<<<

They do that kind of stuff without our help. Happens regularly in that part of the world.

[Scrilla]

Yes Clinton was excellent at morphing from President into Chairman of the Committee to Feel Your Pain at the drop of an oil-soaked loon. Then he would award a Medal of Honor to the widow of a Somalia Nation Builder.
The real issue is: Why are so many poor african-americans obese? How are Coast Guard helicopters supposed to winch the stricken and corpulent? Did Bush cancel a R and D program to develop a helicopter-borne winch that would hoist the non-height/weight proportional to safety?
Is it ethical to save one obese african-american when three or four asians can be saved? (Are there three...or is it four asians in New Orleans?)
What Bush needs to do is airlift Lipitor and steamed rice to New Orleans immediately! Consider this a clarion call for the cardiac health of the poor.
Do left wingers consider disaster relief welfare? Most conservatives consider it a basic federal function. Like national defense. A non-depletable public good, as we say in Econ101.
Over at dKos, there seems to be a direct continuum from voice-mail for the homeless to flood relief.
Federal resources to directly save lives is hardly welfare.
But while we're here...remind me why I should be atwitter about people who CHOSE to remain behind after ample warning of an annual, predictable event?
If only earthquakes called ahead.
Someday, archaeologists will excavate Harry Truman from the silt/ash of Spirit Lake. I hope someone says,"What a moron."
(Fret not Michael, I heard the sammolier from Le Cirque applied at the Baton Rouge Ramada Inn. So, your America triumphs and life goes on.)

[windie]

obsession with the overweight poor? can you say 'creepy' scrilla? (will save the r-word pending further developments ;p)

[JDB]

The sad thing is that the need to support Bush for blowing his response to the Hurricane have driven some interesting things off the talk radio circuit. Earlier this week, John Carlson came out in favor or Murder, and Michael Medved came out in favor of sex with twelve year olds. And this just a week after Pat Robertson posed the question Who Would Jesus Assasinate? It is stories like this that make right wing talk radio fun.

[chris]

No, scrilla is just a typical neo-con racist who lost out and tries to 'entertain' us with his sick rhetoric. That is his best defense of this whole sorry bungled affair that the '06 congress will have to atone for.

[Scrilla]

OKey dokey. With tongue removed from cheek, here's the question: How responsible are the residents for their own (in)action prior to landfall of Katrina, and afterward?
If you can stay off DailyKOS this long and focus on current events instead of Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc reasoning, I'd like an answer.

[sparky]

Well let's see..Im a Poor ..oh yes and FAT..black person who cannot afford a car or at least the 3.00 a gallon of gas to get me out of town. It is the end of the month and I wont get paid until Thursday. But I realize that its still my fault that I can't leave.

Im an elderly black woman who is confined to a wheelchair and I live off my small pension. I cannot drive so I no longer have a car. I have run out of my medication for the month but I wont get my next prescription until Thursday. But I realize I had the responsibility to leave. My fault, so sorry.

I am a an elderly white man who is on life support in the hospital in New Orleans. Next time I will remember to call my relatives in the next state over to come get me.
Darn.

I am the President of the United States. I heard there was a little storm somewhere but hey, I have my live to live. Did I show ya the nifty guitar I got in San Diego? Heh! Playin' golf is hard work! I had ta go over ta San Diego to remind people that the kids of rich people shouldnt have ta pay taxes on their dead daddy's money. Hey!
Bein' President is HARD WORK! Besides, I flew kinda low over all that floodin'. It was just devastatin'. Bet it's even more devastatin' down on the ground!
Hey, I gotta call Condi and ask her if she had a good time in the Big ol' Apple buyin' sum new sexy shoes.

[Lump]

sparky sez "Bein' President is HARD WORK! Besides, I flew kinda low over all that floodin'. It was just devastatin'. Bet it's even more devastatin' down on the ground!" Yeah, it's hard work being a real president instead of a political pimp like the previous occupant of the airplane. He could be down filling sandbags and showing his "pain" and you guys still wouldn't cut him a break. He just keeps going on being the prez and kicking your butt. And, he still got 3 more years of driving loonies nuts.

[blathering michael]

At this rate, Bush just might end up being the Richard Nixon of the next generation. Hope so.

[sparky]

"He just keeps going on being the prez"

and that would involve....what?

Nixon looks like a reasonable person when you compare him to Georgie..

[chris]

Sorry, but the twice elected Clinton is not president anymore, nor is it his job to show how its done, bush is supposedly all grown up now and out of Babs Bush apron

This 'real' president has 3 more years of jackin off on the job, which is what he has done now. He waited till AFTER he got back from golfin' and attending a 60th aniversary of VJ day(where he compared Iraq to WW2) to finally get around to the "honey do" list of things to do this week. What he should of done is had a plan on Sun or at least by Mon on where all this help was going to be organized, rather than waiting for a phone call, which btw has still produced lackluster results.

Yeah Lump, he could be standing around fillin' bags and what not and I know he wont, so I can complain. He could of had the 82nd Airborne parachute in and restore order but his friends in the con media like to see "looting" so they can smack their lips and decry social programs. But it's fuckin great to see all the sleepy reporters who have woken up to watch babies die on bridges and people up to their necks in water and finally realize they are not in some 3rd world country. He's not kickin anyones butt--he has a hard enough time keeping his ass on the seat of his mtn bike while on a flat ranch, which is bush' view of the world right now.

[Scrilla]

chris,
do you know how anything works? The President can't invade a state with federal troops! Jesus Christ! The Governor can request it...but DID NOT!
Also, never mind the costof gas for the po' old crippled folks. It shouldn't have been an issue because the Gov should have used local (Shreveport) busses. They've DONE it before. Where's your blame for Blanco? Keep studying harpy.