After we're all done blaming Bush . . .

The Oregonian ^ | September 08, 2005 | DAVID REINHARD

[crazyhorse691]

Spot on.

[diamond6]

Great article.

[badpacifist]

Damn! There just might be hope for the Peoples Republic of Oregon.

[michaelbfree]

I am shocked, SHOCKED that this appeared in such a liberal rag as the Oregonian.....

[Wristpin]

The real question here is what does a President do when confronted by incompetent/corrupt local politicians during a real no shixt crisis?

Remember that Gay New Jersey Governor Mcgreevey?...He hired his gay non citizen lover to be the states Homeland Security Coordinator! How much more of this type of Griftering is hidden in the bowels of the big DNC Machine?

[sandbar]

Brilliant bump

[Jackson57]

It's obvious the editors didn't really read the article before running it. I mean, the lead sentence was "President Bush and his federal government are to blame". They didn't bother to read any farther than that. Said everything they want it to.

[goldstategop]

The number of Bush haters is a minority. Hate and rage will never get the Left anywhere. I couldn't live my life thinking negatively about everything. Even death sent me a message: you've lost someone dear to you but you are loved by God and things will get better. I have faith in a brighter tomorrow. Positive thinking will get people drawn to you. No one wants to be around perpetually depressed or angry people.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[Michael Bluth]

"Yes, it's important to figure out what Bush's federal government might have done better, but the "Bush-administration-is-to-blame" crew ignores the actions of New Orleans and Louisiana officials with front-line responsibilities. Why did Bush have to urge New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco to order an evacuation early on? Why wasn't busing providing for people who made it to the Superdome, since they learned a year earlier in Hurricane Ivan that this was needed? Why did the city's buses remain parked? Why wasn't the Superdome stocked with supplies in the absence of busing? Why did the locals fail to implement their own emergency plans? Why didn't state officials allow the feds and first responders in sooner?"

And why didn't the City of New Orleans provide adequate police protection to the people inside the Superdome? Why were thugs and rapists allowed to prey upon the law-biding and vulnerable inside the Superdome?

[Ditto]

The failure to even focus on these questions suggests some critics are uninterested in a balanced exploration of the issues.

They are no different than the criminal looters on the streets of the Big Easy. Both are exploiting a tragedy for their own selfish reasons.

[Billthedrill]

I think the Democratic Party has blown its top. Dissociating from the rank and file is the Dean/Pelosi wing, whose members immediately went into a frantic orgy of Bush-bashing before the rain had even stopped. Even MSNBC and now (gasp!) CNN have shown real signs of being disturbed by all the agitprop. I have a friend who's a lifelong Dem who is appalled - "isn't it a little soon for this?" he asked me this morning.

The difficulty is that this particular wing of the party is (1) in charge at the moment, and (2) evidently feels that there is no loss of credibility resulting from this sort of behavior. In the latter they are very mistaken. This is a level of political tone-deafness that even other Dems are finding uncomfortable, and it isn't the first instance.

[diamond6]

Good point!

[Prod Convert]

I live here in Oregon. It isn't the "Peoples Republic of Oregon" by any stretch of anybody's imagination. There is a huge relief effort going on here and in the Northwest generally to aid the Southeast hurricane victims. The governor has sent most of our remaining National Guard to Louisiana, on the Louisiana governor's request. Medical volunteer personnel are being deployed through the Oregon State Medical Association and the Red Cross. I don't see any Bush-bashing going on in the papers. People's Republic, my derriere.

[HawaiianGecko]

"This is a level of political tone-deafness that even other Dems are finding uncomfortable, and it isn't the first instance."

True. You would think that they would notice that only 13% blame the President. That doesn't even add up to the total we'd expect from the usual suspects of the blame bush cabal.

Pelosi and Dean will have to actually campaign and campaign hard to move that number.

[MNJohnnie]

Amazing this came from The Oregonian

[crazyhorse691]

I live in Oregon also. Portland to be exact. And Bushbashing seems to be Portlands favorite hobby. It ain't known as Little Beirut because of its idyllic Mediterranean coastline. Once you get over the mountains, it changes(except for a few towns. And south of Eugene it gets better.

[fat city]

David Reinhard needs to talk to his fellow Oregonian op-ed writers.

[jveritas]

Great article.

[bethtopaz]

I just called him and left a message of thanks!

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

Was their token platitude before getting back to the Bush bashing business as usual.