So Where Was The “Responsibility” Confession?

It was in a throw-away line inserted at minute 21 of the President's self-serving 22-minute litany of White House plans to retool its recent fuck-you approach to New Orleans. The speech was nearly over last night when Bush said, in effect, “Oh-by-the-way I am responsible but let's not dwell on that.” It's interesting that between the White House having sent the New York Times a copy of the president's speech (which was printed this morning) and the appearance of CNN's actual transcript, the speech had changed a great deal. The last two minutes turned out to be totally different from the one published by the NYT. Notably, this paragraph was added: “Four years after the frightening experience of September 11th, Americans have every right to expect a more effective response in a time of emergency. When the federal government fails to meet such an obligation, I as president am responsible for the problem, and for the solution.” So, that's that…another mission accomplished. One can imagine Bush turning to his advisors after he finished his speech, rolling down his sleeves and saying, “How's zat?” Well, Mr. Bush, the answer is, the speech didn't scatter the fairy dust you'd hoped for. You may have short-term memory problems yourself, but the American people can remember just fine. We remember that you had to be dragged from your vacation to give even a teeny bit of attention to the Katrina disaster. We remember your nanny/cum Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, was buying shoes, and seeing a play in New York at the height of the Katrina disaster. We remember that VP Cheney was MIA during the entire storm. And yesterday, the day your speech was supposed to make us forget the gaffes and malfeasance of the Bush administration, Elizabeth Bumiller reported in the NYT a new and stunning false move by the White House: “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, which reaches across many agencies of government and includes the direct involvement of Alphonso R. Jackson, secretary of housing and urban development,” Bumiller said. Is there anyone who would be worse to put in charge of the New Orleans reconstructing? Yes there is…Barbara Bush. But they are probably saving her to chair the Texas Republicans For Fairness and Respect to the Black Community Coalition.