I'm watching Tim Russert battering Homeland Security boss Michael Chertoff this morning: and Chertoff insists that there will be "plenty of time for after-action analysis." What a pathetic bureaucrat, what a moral coward, what a public failure. It is almost as if he does not understand the full depth of the disaster, clinging pitifully to Republican talking points, trying to protect his boss from the waves of political disaster that will wash over him just as surely as the waves of the gulf waters washed over New Orleans.
George Bush is President of this country for another three and a half years. We have no parliamentary out clause, no hope of changing governments, of replacing an obviously ill-suited fool - we are stuck with the title of President Bush. But the power of the Bush presidency is at an ebb; he will never again hold the moral high ground, never again lead the American people, never again speak for more than the narrowest minority of Americans.
He has failed, and will go on forever in history as one of the worst men to have ever held the office.
Still, his people do not see it. They prepare for another Supreme Court nomination, as if they still hold the Congressional cards, as if former lap-dogs like Rick Santorum were not dog-paddling away from the cesspool of the sinking Bush ship just as quickly as they can. And those who haven't jumped ship - the pathetic appointees - seek to blame the victims: Chertoff just told Russert that "those who heeded the warning gout out, they were fine." Oh, and the conservative canard of all time - don't look to the Federal government to solve all your problems, folks.
And they call on Americans not to "politicize" the tragedy. But this is politics! Politics is about deciding who will govern, who will lead, who will captain our vital agencies! This is the time to politicize, to challenge, to prod, and to fire for incompetence.
And mark me: the Democrats should not be holding back, should not adopt the current Clintonian path of appeasing the Bush family in hopes of a dynastic return. They should scream and yell. They should hold up every piece of legislation, every single appointment, every turn of government until answers are given and the poor are taken into shelter. American poor, mind you. They should do their jobs as politicians, in this, a grave moment for the nation.
This is a political moment - it is justly and morally so. We need to take names, fire the incompetent, make changes immediately. And while we're at it, we need to find a way to cripple on as a country with a failed leader in office - in name only - until January, 2009.
UPDATE: I think Joe Gandelman gets it right in his always-vital The Moderate Voice:
All of the Presidents' during our lifetime — Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John F Kennedy, LBJ, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, the first George Bush and Bill Clinton — would have immediately rallied the nation, focused the national need to help victims, taken firm hold of federal rescue-aid machinery, and subsequently symbolized the strength, sincerity, and efficiency of the American Presidency and the federal government during a time of crisis.
Not to mention President Al Gore, or even John Kerry.
