Monk

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Mr. Krugman points out one big reason why President Bush may have been so over-optimistic about the Iraq war. The way he has conducted the privatization of war efforts has made the war pretty sweet for the Administration's crony-capitalist buddies - big money and good times. The tragic failures on the ground, meanwhile, are pretty far removed from those heights.

It can seem like a pretty daming argument for privatizion, in general. Though, these failures may be attributed to the poor way it was handled, such as failing to provide for effective oversight and accountability, and just giving the privateers free reign over the trough of government money.

( Krugman column )

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These are people so much better at inflicting pain than feeling it, so much better at taking things apart than putting them together, so much better at defending "intelligent design" as a theology than practicing it as a policy.

-- Thomas L. Friedman, "Osama and Katrina" for The NY Times

Ah, Friedman is back from vacation, and we may as well let him take his shot at the Administration. Monk feels more sympathy for Friedman's perspective. In the aftermath of 9/11, like Friedman, Monk was tempted to think that this may have been the saving grace of Bush's election - to have a stronger national security president when we have come to need one.

Alas, while the Democrats often seem to be clueless on national security, Bush only brought all his mediocrity to foreign policy - muscular but narrow minded.

And Katrina has arguably stripped the man bare. Though, it looks like the hurricane may have only laid our partisan polarity bare, as conservative Republicans are no more inclined to see fault in the man than before, as Dan Balz relates in "For Bush, a Deepening Divide":

A Washington Post-ABC News poll taken last Friday illustrates the point vividly. Just 17 percent of Democrats said they approved of the way Bush was handling the Katrina crisis while 74 percent of Republicans said they approved. About two in three Republicans rated the federal government's response as good or excellent, while two in three Democrats rated it not so good or poor.

( Friedman column )

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We will go ahead and take Dowd's and Krugman's shots at the lacking response of the Bush Administration to Hurricane Katrina. Though, one gets the impression that this issue will be politically diffused as the others have been. In the end, conservative Republicans will not fault him.

This historically dramatic episode is perhaps just more striking evidence of America's libertarian base - as well as of the ideological division that marks our country. It is enough that there was an evacuation notice. If the poor, largely made of minorites, cannot heed that warning, it is not within the capability or responsibility of the government to save them. The liberals may make a lot of noise over their sense of terrible social injustice, but this falls on deaf ears - especially when there are reports of rescuers being shot at by the crowds, along with the accounts of banditry and rape.

( Columns )

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