Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Can the President escape the ghost of Katrina?
Props galore - Photo opportunities and more photo opportunities
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The President must be tired, flying back and forth from the areas affected by Katrina and Rita. After dawdling in Crawford he is bending over backward to repair the damage.....the damage to his popularity rating. And we were told once that he never paid attention to polls. Perhaps he is doing it at the insistence of his handlers.
Will he succeed? The former FEMA director's testimony today before the House of Representatives isn't going to help much. While Michael Brown strongly criticized officials in New Orleans, he also pointed his finger at DHS. This is the Michael Brown who was appointed as head of FEMA by President Bush and received high praise on September 9th during the president's first visit to the Gulf Coast after Katrina. ("Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job")
The President's attempts to keep under his control investigation of what went wrong might not succeed either. Remember, he tried it with the 9/11 enquiry and failed. This time,too, there is skepticism about his efforts to block an independent commission. Time for another long vacation.
A Reuters news agency report included the following:
The President must be tired, flying back and forth from the areas affected by Katrina and Rita. After dawdling in Crawford he is bending over backward to repair the damage.....the damage to his popularity rating. And we were told once that he never paid attention to polls. Perhaps he is doing it at the insistence of his handlers.
Will he succeed? The former FEMA director's testimony today before the House of Representatives isn't going to help much. While Michael Brown strongly criticized officials in New Orleans, he also pointed his finger at DHS. This is the Michael Brown who was appointed as head of FEMA by President Bush and received high praise on September 9th during the president's first visit to the Gulf Coast after Katrina. ("Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job")
The President's attempts to keep under his control investigation of what went wrong might not succeed either. Remember, he tried it with the 9/11 enquiry and failed. This time,too, there is skepticism about his efforts to block an independent commission. Time for another long vacation.
A Reuters news agency report included the following:
Republicans have so far rejected calls for a bipartisan commission similar to the panel that investigated the September 11, 2001, attacks, even though polls show an overwhelming majority of the public supports such a probe.
A Gallup Poll last week found 81 percent of respondents in favor of an independent investigation with only 18 percent backing a congressional investigation.
"I don't know why they are resisting so hard," said pollster John Zogby. "The public is angry and they want answers. The Republicans may have picked a fight they can't win."
Bush may find it hard to resist Katrina commission (Reuters 9/27/05)
