[altroots] Responsibility

Responsibility
By Rodger French
September 16, 2005

Vacationer-in-Chief George W. Bush: "Katrina exposed serious problems in our
response capability at all levels of government, and to the extent that the
federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility."

To be honest, I was momentarily stunned. After four and a half years of
mind-boggling incompetence - at last, the "R word." Granted, Bush delivered
this epiphany in a fashion that reminded me of nothing so much as an 11
year-old boy 'fessing up because he has no way out. But things are getting
desperate indeed if Karl Rove's spin machine has to resort to the truth, or
at least something like it.

It is worth noting, however, that the wording of this statement includes the
lawyerly phrase " to the extent." It will be interesting to see who gets to
define "extent." Call me skeptical, but I sensing loopholes here.

For clarification on matters of semantics, I suggest we turn to comedian
David Frye. Some of you will recall that Mr. Frye's shtick was to
impersonate Richard M. Nixon, which he did brilliantly. One of Mr. Frye's
routines considered a possible Nixon response to a question about the extent
of his involvement in the Watergate scandal. As I recall, it went like this:

"I accept the responsibility, but not the blame. Let me explain: people who
accept responsibility keep their jobs; people who accept the blame do not."

[Bonus snark from comedian Will Durst: "Bush says he doesn't want to play
the 'Blame Game.' Makes sense. Never heard of a chicken who wanted to play
the 'Extra Crispy' game."]

But now, live from Jackson Square, a turning point: "The Speech." It was a
good speech, from the Bush Junta's point of view. It was mostly upbeat and
hit on all the major talking points, including: tributes to heroes, salutes
to the "armies of compassion" (nice militaristic touch), acknowledgement
that America actually has a history of racial discrimination, another brief
acceptance of responsibility (but not blame), enthusiastic extolling of
entrepreneurship, a lot of broad pledges of massive federal aid, three
actual initiatives and finally a tribute to that venerable New Orleans
tradition, the "second line." All in all, just what Karl and the Spin
Doctors were hoping for. Maybe.

Now I hate to rain on this parade - yeah, right - but I can't help but bring
up some small problems that Shirtsleeves-in-Chief George W. Bush did not
address to my satisfaction:

Such as... where is the money going to come from to finance the
(conservatively) estimated $200 billion needed to rebuild the region? Will
we roll back tax cuts for the rich? Doubtful. Eviscerate even more social
programs for poor people? Too ironic. Pull out of Iraq? Ouch. Or will we
simply pile it on the deficit and go even more in hock to the Chinese?
Bingo!

Such as... why, after four years and a gazillion dollars, we are still in
the position of having the Department of Homeland Security "undertake an
immediate review, in cooperation with local counterparts, of emergency plans
in every major city in America." While Osama quietly smiles.

Such as... why the American people should expect a Republican-controlled
Congress to be capable of a thorough investigation of " all the facts about
the government response to Hurricane Katrina." Since Denny Hastert (R-Funk
Impaired) gets to choose the members of the "bipartisan commission,"
including, I believe, Democrats as well as Republicans, lowered expectations
might be in order.

In fact, I still have no reason to believe that this administration, given
the astounding levels of hubris and incompetence manifested in their
response to 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, is capable of rebuilding the Gulf
Coast in anything like a equitable and just fashion. That's simply not their
style. Paul Krugman sums it up nicely: "There's every reason to believe the
reconstruction of the Gulf Coast, like the failed reconstruction of Iraq,
will be deeply marred by cronyism and corruption."

Think not? The New York Times reports: "Republicans said Karl Rove, the
White House deputy chief of staff and Mr. Bush's chief political adviser,
was in charge of the reconstruction effort." I guess when your boss's job
approval rating goes in the toilet, you become qualified to be the new
"Master of Disaster."

For more than four years Bush and his base, "the haves and the have mores,"
have been relentlessly imposing their agenda on the rest of us, an agenda
anchored in the fundamental tenet of Reaganomics: "I'm rich. Fuck you."
(Kudos, Richard Beltzer.) One well-crafted speech in the face of catastrophe
will not alter that.

I could be wrong... I sincerely hope I'm wrong. But I doubt it.

[Rodger French has a weblog to which he will periodically post thoughtful
essays and opinionated rants for your consideration:

http://home.earthlink.net/~deluxevaudeville/rgfrenchweblog/]

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