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From Josh Marshall:

DC Republicans fishing for someone to call for Nagin’s resignation.

Well, they’ve got to be fishing in some very slimy waters, and my sources tell me that the streets of DC are hip-deep in ‘em.  Of course, there are two plausible grounds for Nagin’s resignation:  one, he has not shown sufficient deference and gratitude to the President, as mayors, governors, and praetors must do at all times.  Two, he continues to use the word “man” in ordinary conversation, and such ghetto slang frightens the President’s base.

I’ve got one more outrage to get to before I turn in for the night, so let me take this opportunity to say the obvious.  The Bush Administration’s failure to provide adequate relief for victims of Katrina is a political issue through and through.  Timorous Democrats, please take note.  Bush/Cheney based their entire 2004 campaign, at least the official version, on the premise that they and they alone could protect Americans from terrorist attacks, and they slandered your ticket accordingly.  (The unofficial version of the campaign, you’ll recall, involved the Swift Boat Vets—see “very slimy waters,” above.) Cheney gave the speech time and again:  electing Kerry meant certain, fiery death.  Remember those wolves gathering in the forest?  The extra wolves they didn’t use in The Day After Tomorrow?  Well, it turns out that the Bush crew can’t protect you from wolves.  It can’t even get pallets of food, water, and medicine to sick, starving people in New Orleans.  It can’t plan for a disaster that everyone, everyone in “disaster management” anticipated.  It can’t even answer the goddamn phone when Capt. Nora Tyson, commander of the U.S.S. Bataan, is calling to offer aid, medical services, and fresh water to the hurricane victims.  (And check out the date on that military press release in the hyperlink!  August 29.)

I remember the Republican National Convention.  I bet you do, too.  And I remember Ahnuld saying:

If you believe that government should be accountable to the people, not the people to the government, then you are a Republican.

Don’t forget it for an instant:  they ran on this.  Security, defense, accountability.  That’s what Democrats have to say and say and say again in the coming weeks.  Otherwise, this crew of criminals and incompetents will start calling for “accountability” in the form of Ray Nagin’s head on a platter.

Posted by on 09/06 at 07:32 PM

  1. I wouldn’t mind seeing Nagin go - he is after all one of them. Plus, if he were pushed out by the Bushies he might don his martyr suit again and stick it to ‘em in the press until they bleed.

    Posted by  on  09/06  at  11:08 PM

  2. Sven--That’s all part of their plan to shift the blame to Democrats.  Blanco and Nagin are bad.  Haley Barbour is good etc.

    Michael--The Republicans are already on the offensive on this one.  I heard Grover Norquist say that maybe we should take muncipal government seriously in this country.

    Chris Lydon had Grover on for a program asking about whether Katrina would make us rethink our vision of government.  I’m kind of surprised that Grover agreed to go on, because the opening bit said that Norquist had famously opined that the Federal Government should be shrunk so that we could drown it in a bathtub.  How should we think about that now that New Orleans is drowned.  It’s worth listening to.  Alan Wolfe makes an appearance too.

    The podcast should be up shortly.  It’s worth listening to.

    Posted by  on  09/07  at  12:13 AM

  3. I understand that, Abby. But Nagin is responsible for creating an evacuation plan that consisted of telling the city’s poor, “In the event of an emergency, kiss your ass goodbye.”

    He’s also a lifelong Republican, skilled in the art of stabbing Democrats in the back. The other day I watched him tell Soledad O’Brien that he and the Prez worked everything out on Air Farce One, but that Gov. Blanco got all weepy and scuttled everything by refusing to sign over control of the state to the feds. He continues to play buddy-buddy with George.

    Again, I think he’d turn his considerable character assasination skills on the GOP if the Bushies make the mistake of pushing him out.

    Posted by  on  09/07  at  01:04 AM

  4. Sven,

    I saw that, too, and couldn’t figure out what was going on. The Corner is going crazy over the same stuff, Blanco is getting swift-boated big-time; the only thing that’s confusing the smearers that they thought the assignment was to go after both Nagin and Blanco.

    Michael,

    Exactly. Cause that’s one “there” I think even this newly energized press will avoid going; they’d have to take a look at their own insistence that Bush and Republicans were the serious ones when it came to issues of security.

    Are we really any safer today than we were on 9/10?  What I can’t get over is the failure of emergency communication systems; wasn’t that an identified weak point that was supposed to be handled by now?

    Well, I’m sure we’ll find out all the answers soon, now that the President is going to take charge of the investigation of what went wrong, oh, and also what went right.

    I feel guilty admitting anything made me laugh during these pressing times, but I was helpless in the company of “those extra wolves they didn’t use in The Day After.”

    Posted by Leah A  on  09/07  at  01:27 AM

  5. The Dems in 2006 and 2008 need to repeat over and over:  Security starts at home.  Domestic security *is* national security.

    Posted by Tina  on  09/07  at  09:22 AM

  6. It’s the Southern Strategy Waterloo. When you’ve got Republican women like Barber and Malkin questioning the judgement of Dear Leader on this, then you know it’s bad for them. Dems need to go after the security moms ...the ones that voted for Clinton and flipped after 9/11. They’re pissed.

    Posted by Roxanne  on  09/07  at  10:25 AM

  7. Well, it turns out that the Bush crew can’t protect you from wolves.  It can’t even get pallets of food, water, and medicine to sick, starving people in New Orleans.

    Oh come on, now you’re being totally unfair. No one ever said that Bush’s promises applied to poor folks, or black folks.

    Posted by  on  09/07  at  10:40 AM

  8. Is ‘the base’ even listening to what’s going on? It strikes me that a large percentage of Republicans just want ‘Morning in America,’ to hear that everything’s fine and well with the country--whether it’s true or not, they don’t care, they just want to ‘believe’…

    Posted by  on  09/07  at  10:49 AM

  9. Berube- Don’t think that I don’t get that you’re trying to blame the French here...FYI Hadfield doesn’t sound French at all..

    Posted by  on  09/07  at  03:07 PM

  10. More on the Bush v. Blanco showdown re: martial law. Discussion in comments very useful as well. Nagin very skillfully tried to paint Blanco as holding the *rescue* phase up, when she was trying to prevent complete federalization of the *recovery / reconstruction* phase. Reconstruction, hmmm.
    http://tinyurl.com/93cp9

    Posted by John Protevi  on  09/07  at  04:40 PM

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