Can America marshal the resources to fight battles in Iraq and rebuild the Gulf Coast? A political storm is brewing.
War on the Mississippi
Can America marshal the resources to fight battles in Iraq and rebuild the Gulf Coast? A political storm is brewing.
By Howard Fineman
Newsweek
For years the Pentagon’s standing readiness plans required the country to be able to fight two major wars simultaneously. But no one anticipated what we face now: a war in Mesopotamia and another along the Mississippi.
We have journalist Malcolm Gladwell to thank for the idea that every social phenomenon has a dramatic “tipping point.” It doesn’t always work that way. And yet Hurricane Katrina is just such a moment. We are a big, strong country—and New Orleans will, somehow, survive—but you do get the sense, as President Bush finally arrived here after a monthlong vacation, that a political hurricane is gathering force, and it’s going to hit the capital any day.
As we approach the fourth anniversary of 9/11, Americans are facing a different anguish from a different, but no less iconic city. New Yorkers, on behalf of the rest of us, absorbed Al Qaeda’s attack and came back stronger than ever. We begin the fifth year of a “war against terror” that has brought some gains, but has cost 2,000 lives and half a trillion dollars—and there is no end in sight.
And now: the Storm and the Flood, which have inundated the Gulf Coast in deadly water. This is, literally, an invasion of the homeland, and it will require a warlike response from a nation and a military already stretched thin. National Guard officials insist that they have enough men and women on hand to do the job, but common sense tells you that they could use the others stationed abroad. The U.S. Navy is dispatching supply ships to the region, but battling the waters that cover the region will require many more resources.
Andy Jackson won the Battle of New Orleans. Will George Bush? His poll numbers already at near-record low levels, he will have to oversee the rescue of the gulf in the midst of a changing climate in Washington. The public’s sense of where America is headed—the “right direction/wrong track” numbers—are dismal. Gas prices are high and unsettling. Congressional Democrats, reluctant since 9/11 to take on a “war president,” finally have decided to do so. And Republicans, knowing that they’ll be facing the voters a year from now, are beginning to seek ways to distance themselves from him.
This president doesn’t need Karl Rove to explain the political importance of disaster relief. It’s something Bush responds to naturally, and he knows the risks of seeming to be an insensitive, to-the-manner-born president. When hurricanes hit Florida before the last election, he and his brother, Jeb, were on the case, Big Time. Now three Red States are hit, hard, and the challenge is likely to be much greater.
Meanwhile, he will have to preside over yet another 9/11 anniversary, this one coming at a time when most Americans have decided that the war in Iraq shouldn’t have been fought and that it hasn’t made us safer at home. Bush will face calls not only for the release of more oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, but for a wholesale consideration of his energy and environmental policies.
And just after Labor Day, hearings will start in the Judiciary Committee on the nomination of Judge John G. Roberts Jr. Expect the Democrats to drop their caution and go after him with all they’ve got. They’re coming to the conclusion that they have nothing to lose, and they are being pushed in that combative direction by a grass-roots base furious at the congressional party for not having taken a tougher line against the president months if not years ago.
But now they sense blood in the rising water.
Can America marshal the resources to fight battles in Iraq and rebuild the Gulf Coast? A political storm is brewing.
By Howard Fineman
Newsweek
For years the Pentagon’s standing readiness plans required the country to be able to fight two major wars simultaneously. But no one anticipated what we face now: a war in Mesopotamia and another along the Mississippi.
We have journalist Malcolm Gladwell to thank for the idea that every social phenomenon has a dramatic “tipping point.” It doesn’t always work that way. And yet Hurricane Katrina is just such a moment. We are a big, strong country—and New Orleans will, somehow, survive—but you do get the sense, as President Bush finally arrived here after a monthlong vacation, that a political hurricane is gathering force, and it’s going to hit the capital any day.
As we approach the fourth anniversary of 9/11, Americans are facing a different anguish from a different, but no less iconic city. New Yorkers, on behalf of the rest of us, absorbed Al Qaeda’s attack and came back stronger than ever. We begin the fifth year of a “war against terror” that has brought some gains, but has cost 2,000 lives and half a trillion dollars—and there is no end in sight.
And now: the Storm and the Flood, which have inundated the Gulf Coast in deadly water. This is, literally, an invasion of the homeland, and it will require a warlike response from a nation and a military already stretched thin. National Guard officials insist that they have enough men and women on hand to do the job, but common sense tells you that they could use the others stationed abroad. The U.S. Navy is dispatching supply ships to the region, but battling the waters that cover the region will require many more resources.
Andy Jackson won the Battle of New Orleans. Will George Bush? His poll numbers already at near-record low levels, he will have to oversee the rescue of the gulf in the midst of a changing climate in Washington. The public’s sense of where America is headed—the “right direction/wrong track” numbers—are dismal. Gas prices are high and unsettling. Congressional Democrats, reluctant since 9/11 to take on a “war president,” finally have decided to do so. And Republicans, knowing that they’ll be facing the voters a year from now, are beginning to seek ways to distance themselves from him.
This president doesn’t need Karl Rove to explain the political importance of disaster relief. It’s something Bush responds to naturally, and he knows the risks of seeming to be an insensitive, to-the-manner-born president. When hurricanes hit Florida before the last election, he and his brother, Jeb, were on the case, Big Time. Now three Red States are hit, hard, and the challenge is likely to be much greater.
Meanwhile, he will have to preside over yet another 9/11 anniversary, this one coming at a time when most Americans have decided that the war in Iraq shouldn’t have been fought and that it hasn’t made us safer at home. Bush will face calls not only for the release of more oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, but for a wholesale consideration of his energy and environmental policies.
And just after Labor Day, hearings will start in the Judiciary Committee on the nomination of Judge John G. Roberts Jr. Expect the Democrats to drop their caution and go after him with all they’ve got. They’re coming to the conclusion that they have nothing to lose, and they are being pushed in that combative direction by a grass-roots base furious at the congressional party for not having taken a tougher line against the president months if not years ago.
But now they sense blood in the rising water.
posted by Sid Cottingham | 4:45 PM
3 Comments:
I hope all of us recognize the tragedy of this and realize it is disgraceful and innappropriate to politic the disaster.
It may be "inapropriate" to "politicize" this event; but the actions of the elected officials involved speak for themselves.They line themselves up with Democrats on one side and Republicans on the other -- the doers and the unresponsive. My heart is broken -- I have watched my home town of New Orleans disappear before my eyes this week. I have seen Geraldo, Shep Smith of Fox news, Jean Meserve of CNN dissolve in anger and tears on the air. I listen to talk radio and hear people begging for the nation's Democratic leadership to speak out on the actions and lack thereof from FEMA "Homeland Security" and this president's administration. Where was Karl Rove when for once he SHOULD have been telling W what to do?
Politicize - oh yes -- I'll politicize, for God help America if we suffer another monumental act of nature OR another calculated terrorist attack somewhere in America during this republican administration.
Gov. Dean, I get the party e-mails, but how about some kind of public statement? National Democratic leadership, how about joining Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and address the total SNAFU of this tragedy? Better yet, how about going down to Louisiana, Mississippi, or Alabama -- not for a fly-by -- but get down there and DO SOMETHING! Can you hand out bottles of water? And how in the name of all that's holy can W emerge from Friday's trip to the Coast and New Orleans and not only NOT shed a tear but not even sound emotional?"It's hard work," I guess.
Yeah, Coffee County's Ragin' Cajun has emerged from months of silence on the blog because my heart is broken for my old stomping grounds and my soul is crying out for my brothers and sisters. Oh, heck yes, the events of the week of August 29, 2005, politicize themselves. But let no one be OPPORTUNISTIC in using the events or the evacuees ( they are not refugees - they are Americans)for personal gain. I'm gonna be ragin' on this a LONG time -- anybody else with me? Time to show alot of folks in America what we Democrats are made of:
There but for the Grace of God go I." Whatever your religion or non-religion -- I think this philosophy differentiates us from anyone else.
And lest you criticize or question me about going to help -- I'm in the process of figuring out what route to take and when I can leave to go home to help.
I do believe this reporter is right. There is a major storm brewing that I don't believe either party will survive. The Dems have a chance if they ever manage to regain their lost faith in our country and our people.
I see this storm beginning when I talk to the some 2.1 million people in Georgia who have sat out every election b/c they feel they can't make a difference......Woe unto Washington, for your people perish. Where there is no vision, where there is no hope, where there is no faith, the people perish.
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