I know several people — some government, some private sector — who have been substantively involved with the N.O. relief effort. They all speak with a mixture of contempt and disgust with the local political structure. N.O. right now is full of outsiders trying to put things back together, but the locals keep throwing up roadblocks.
New Orleans simply re-proves an old proposition: you get the government that you deserve.
That’s what happened when the levees broke...it was the local governments that screwed the people...not Bush [as hard as Bush tried to prevent the suffering of those people].