Herbert:"The nation as a whole is so much better than this administration"

[BurtWorm]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/opinion/05herbert.html?pagewanted=print

...


After days of withering criticism from white and black Americans, from conservatives as well as liberals, from Republicans and Democrats, the president finally felt compelled to act, however feebly. (The chorus of criticism from nearly all quarters demanding that the president do something tells me that .)

Mr. Bush flew south on Friday and proved (as if more proof were needed) that he didn't get it. Instead of urgently focusing on the people who were stranded, hungry, sick and dying, he engaged in small talk, reminiscing at one point about the days when he used to party in New Orleans, and mentioning that Trent Lott had lost one of his houses but that it would be replaced with "a fantastic house - and I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch."

Mr. Bush's performance last week will rank as one of the worst ever by a president during a dire national emergency. What we witnessed, as clearly as the overwhelming agony of the city of New Orleans, was the dangerous incompetence and the staggering indifference to human suffering of the president and his administration.

And it is this incompetence and indifference to suffering (yes, the carnage continues to mount in Iraq) that makes it so hard to be optimistic about the prospects for the United States over the next few years. At a time when effective, innovative leadership is desperately needed to cope with matters of war and peace, terrorism and domestic security, the economic imperatives of globalization and the rising competition for oil, the United States is being led by a man who seems oblivious to the reality of his awesome responsibilities...

[brentspeak]

1. Bob Herbert, one of my favorite columnists

Guy is almost always on target.

[Miss Chybil]

2. kick

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. Just like 9-11, Katrina was another BushCo FLOP

A Failure to Lead On Purpose.

[Spazito]

4. Whoa, among the scathing columns I have read, this has to be

the most lethal towards bush and his admin.

[Independent_Liberal]

5. Kick!

[jefferson_dem]

6. Herbert is dead on! How the fuck anyone can continue to defend this

fucking loser of a pres is utterly beyond comprehension. Seriously. If there is any shred of decency and rationality left in this great nation, his myrmidonic circle-jerk of kool aid drinkers will become more and more marginalized.

Like a boy being prepped for a second crack at a failed exam, Mr. Bush has been meeting with his handlers to see what steps can be taken to minimize the political fallout from this latest demonstration of his ineptitude. But this is not about politics. It's about competence. And when the president is so obviously clueless about matters so obviously important, it means that the rest of us, like the people left stranded in New Orleans, are in deep, deep trouble.

Nominated like a CHAMP!

[bleever]

7. Nominate this. Corporate Media is starting to point out that the emperor

has,

in fact,

no clothes.

[Solly Mack]

8. I'm glad I read that

thanks for posting it

[mzmolly]

9. Recommended.

Thanks for all the great posts BW.

[Booster]

10. Truly a must read. Kick and nominated.

[Hamlette]

11. kick, Herbert is my favorite

[fishwax]

12. Herbert hits it on the head

damn good read

:kick:

[cilla4progress]

13. Something to add

I've got something to add to the conversation that I've been thinking about for a couple days. Recall how * said no one (least of all himself!) expected the levees to break. Most people think it's a naked lie and negligence; I think it's true. And you know why? Because he is in complete denial about global warming, or any other of humankind's vast destruction to the environment.

No, GW didn't expect that mother nature could make her move and TAKE BACK what's rightly hers.....namely, the Gulf coast and its shoreline. He doesn't respect nature, nor the power of it, nor the need to live in HER shadow, on HER terms. He's too narcissistic and megalomaniacal to acknowledge that it's not his in his power to subdue all humanity and all nature.

You gotta think he's somewhat humbled now..if he has a brain at all...a huge question mark, in the best of lights.

[HooptieWagon]

16. Chertoff and Brown WERE warned

about the levees failing, in a briefing by National Hurricane Center director Max Mayfield several days before the storm hit.

[cilla4progress]

18. Yes, but..

did they really "hear" it? They have no appreciation for their own limitedness. I'd place money that in their arrogance they figured they could stem anything that would happen.

[dweller]

14. another DU'er made this bumpersticker (sorry, i've forgotten who)

please step forward and accept my praise ... you've nailed it spot on.

dp

[oasis]

15. You think Chimpy's jaw is twitching now, just wait until Dem hearings

begin after the 2006 elections. He will be living under the shadow of impeachment for his final two years.

[MadeinOhio]

17. This is great leader, "strong on nation defense." Resign now. ALL OF YOU.