By The Seat of His Breaches

From an Associated Press report:

In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms,
federal disaster officials warned President
Bush and his homeland security chief before
Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm
could breach levees, put lives at risk...and
overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential
video footage.

...Four days after the storm, Mr. Bush said:
"I don't think anybody anticipated
the breach of the levees."
The article also cites then-FEMA chief Michael Brown referencing a conversation he had with the president on the day the storm hit. Brown said Bush was "asking questions about reports of breaches."

I suppose the president could clarify that he was talking about "britches." Sure. He was asking about reports of britches being in short supply for the naked survivors.

I'm confident this surprises no one. Instead, it's sending Republicans into a frenzy of spin control and (no doubt) an investigation about who leaked the video footage.

Here's what the Republicans will do: they have all their pundits stir up some rage about how this is all some spurious and mean-spirited attempt of The Left to discredit the president and the administration.

Ah, yes. The patented non-denial denial. The "I'm-going-to-incite-the-masses" plan that completely sidesteps questions of the president's integrity. Republicans honed that skill during Watergate, when the misdeeds and allegations reported by The Washington Post were responded to with enflamed cries about the liberal media agenda to undermine the Nixon administration, while carefully avoiding whether or not the reports were true.

Ugh. That partisan gamesmanship and political posturing has incensed me against the machinations of our nation's capitol.

The Democrats are guilty, too. What did the Clinton administration do when political mines exploded in their camp? They sent their crazed wildman, James Carville, to lambaste all things non-Democratic with his patented whirling dervish of media incendiary. That man could get fired up with righteous indignation about the color of flowers and make a sound bite out of the blathering spectacle.

It spreads, too, like a plague. Every conservative talk-radio host will key on some circuitous logic to make this about a liberal agenda. And their sheep will fall in line with enthusiasm.

That's right. The Bush administration's lies about the awareness of danger associated with Katrina and their inept response to widespread devastation are really about the agenda of the people who call attention to it.