I’m really bothered by the sing-song “blame-game” tossed about by the Right. There is, indeed, blame here. I was recently lectured by someone about other people’s failure to accept “personal responsibility.” Oh, like “the buck stops here”?

Bush seemed so inept not because he was on vacation but because Cheney and Rove were on vacation. Now we see “Bush’s brain” back on the attack.

Standing in a warehouse, Bush’s arms stuck out from his sides as if he were a weightlifter; he moved as if recovering from a stroke.

I saw Bush at a cabinet meeting explaining “we’ll solve these problems because that’s what we are — problem solvers.” And articulate, too. mjh

Parties Scramble for Post-Katrina Leverage
Hill GOP Sets Investigative Commission; Democrats Criticize Panel’s Makeup
By Charles Babington and Shailagh Murray

House and Senate GOP leaders announced the “Hurricane Katrina Joint Review Committee,” which will include only members of Congress, with Republicans outnumbering Democrats by a yet-to-be-determined ratio. The commission, which will have subpoena powers, will investigate the actions of local, state and federal governments before and after the storm that devastated New Orleans and other portions of the Gulf Coast.

They rejected Democratic appeals to model the panel after the Sept. 11 commission, which was made up of non-lawmakers and was equally balanced between Republicans and Democrats. That commission won wide praise for assessing how the 2001 terrorist attacks occurred, and for recommending changes in the government’s anti-terrorism structure. …

A Republican-led Congress cannot be trusted to make a thorough investigation of a Republican administration, said Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.). “Democrats strongly prefer that the response to Hurricane Katrina be investigated by a commission of independent experts like the 9/11 commission,” he said.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the new commission “is not truly bipartisan, will not be made up of equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans, cannot write legislation and will not have bipartisan subpoena power.”

Bush Requests $51.8 Billion More for Relief
GOP Leaders Launch Inquiry on Katrina Preparation and Response
By Jonathan Weisman and Amy Goldstein

“While countless Americans are pulling together to lend a helping hand, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are pointing fingers in a shameless effort to tear us apart,” Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman responded.

[mjh: I hear Mrs Lovejoy crying, “think of the children; won’t somebody think of the children?” Somebody should remind Mehlman they won the election through shameless efforts to tear us apart.]