Katrina and George

Now considered the worst hurricane ever to hit the US since records have been kept, Katrina has wrought havoc on the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, and it could have been worse.

I can't even imagine the heartache of being in such a terrible situation. There are reports of 80 dead already and maybe a million homeless. The tag price will be something around $25 billion, some $5 billion more than Andrew, the previous worst hurricane.

And in all this, where is Bush? Still on vacation naturally. Actually, yesterday he did leave his ranch. Did he go back to the White House, to start coordinating the relief effort? Or did he go to Louisiana, which after all is Texas' neighboring state, probably no more than a 2-hour helicopter ride from Crawford, to assess the situation and show empathy to the hurricane victims?

No, why? Was anything interesting happening there? Instead, he opted to go to Arizona to talk about Medicare at a Country Club (because that's where senior citizens usually hang out) and to celebrate his newfound-pal John McCain's birthday.

Now, this is understandable, since yesterday the hurricane was actually making landfall, and the President couldn't possibly put himself in danger by going to New Orleans. Silly me. So, I'm sure he acted today.

Hmh, no, he didn't. Today he was travelling alright, but to the Golden State of California (which the GOP desperately wants to wrestle away from the Democrats,) to equate his oil-war in Iraq that virtually nobody supports anymore, with World War II. You might have heard of that one. It's the one where Hitler had conquered almost all of Europe and was intent in wiping all the Jews and other minorities from the face of the planet. It kind of involved the whole world. Yes, that one. Do you see the similarities now? Me neither.

Anyway, so Bush doesn't care about Louisiana (not enough people there voted for him to warrant His Highness' Interest, I guess,) but where are the Democrats? I mean, figures like Senators Clinton, Kerry, Kennedy, Reid, Durbin have quite a national profile, and it would help both them and the party if they just showed up where Bush fails to, don't you think?

Why aren't they lambasting him at every hour on the hour on every newscast in the country for not showing up where he's needed, for not showing any leadership, for failing to act as the fracking President? Why aren't they taking the issue away from him and start a fundraiser for the victims? Even just visiting the area would point out, glaringly, that Bush didn't.

My assessment? Bush needs a new publicist (how could he miss an opportunity for such a photo op is beyond me, especially with his approval ratings at 40%, his lowest ever,) and the Democrats need to get their s**t together and start acting like they really do want to win some elections, instead of just showing up.

Get it together already, or do we need to start camping out in front of every Congressmembers' residencies during their vacations?