The Blame Game

Republicans are shuddering and affixing a line that Democrats are playing the "blame game" prematurely in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. Unfortunately, the way that Republicans want to deal with this horrifying tragedy points to their criminally negligent mindset as much as anybody. They, simply, don't want the blame. They don't even want Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff or FEMA head Brown to testify, if an investigation ever occurs. Can you believe this? Leading Republicans truly don't want those who are absolutely responsible for the response to disaster to testify as to why that response failed. IF an investigation were to occur.

In fact, just as one bipartisan Senate panel announced it would hold hearings to see what went wrong, several GOP senators said that top leaders at the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency should not have to testify -- raising obvious questions about the purpose of the hearings in the first place.

"I'm not one that is running around trying to fix blame," says Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., who lost his own antebellum home in Pascagoula. "It never is perfect after a natural disaster." (Lott has a second home in Jackson.)

Lott says that if the Senate holds hearings about the government's response to Katrina, neither Michael Chertoff, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, nor Michael D. Brown, head of FEMA, should have to attend. "I think hearings are in order, but the first hearings should be about what we can do that would be helpful," says the former Senate majority leader. He described President Bush as "strong" in his response to the storm.

The House tends to follow directions from the White House. So if there is going to be a no-holds-barred investigation into the Katrina relief efforts, it would most likely come from the Senate, where moderates in both parties still hold considerable sway.

Yet the GOP senators walking the halls of Congress Tuesday seemed particularly sanguine and patient about the obvious shortfalls in government efforts to respond to Katrina, reflecting none of the brash rage reflected in the faces outside the Superdome and voiced by TV reporters in the past week.

GOP Senators are severely missing something here. The faces of TV reporters, including Geraldo Rivera and Shepard Smith on Fox News, were outraged and pained deeply by the shock of having seen, simply, no federal response to this huge disaster. [They were, possibly, equally shocked that their beloved government was failing.] But what the GOP seems to miss is that we don't care about the TV news reporters- Americans themselves are utterly ashamed, pissed off, dismayed by the lack of response.

When you neglect to answer to America, Mr Lott, Mr Bush, Mr McCain, America loses all faith in you and your ability to comprehend your role in government. This is incredible to see. After the failure of the levees, we witnessed a failure of our government to protect. Now, we are all being held captive by a failure of our representatives.