Aargh!

Some of the administration's political opponents are reacting to the administration's fumbling with barely disguised glee, hoping it will hobble the administration's policy plans and hurt the GOP in the 2006 elections and beyond. But all Americans, Democrats and Republicans, ought to hope that the administration will right itself sufficiently to oversee an effective recovery. And that's not just for the sake of Katrina's survivors. For the president to be rendered a lame duck more than three years before he leaves office would not serve the country well, at home or abroad.

Now is this really called for? This is a blatant, undisguised ad hominem attack. No quotes, no substantiation, no evidence that anybody is actually feeling a “barely disguised glee” or that they're saying anything to that effect. How does the Washington Post know what it is that “political opponents” are hoping for? Should we Americans all want the Administration to “right itself” or would it be more appropriate to hope that the Administration reforms itself and fires the incompetents? Is the Administration going to reform without pressure, i.e. criticism? Condi Rice came back from her oh-so-pleasant vacation in New York because she was being criticized, not because she just sort of spontaneously realized on her own that what she was doing was wrong and immoral. In other words, the criticism had a real and a positive effect.

Now, it may be “anti-Bush” of me to say this, but if Bush is rendered a lame duck and has to sit around for the next three years twiddling his thumbs, I'm sorry, but that possibility doesn't bother me in the slightest. If Democrats remain on their feet and bring the business of the Capitol to a grinding halt, I'll be walking around with a song on my lips and a smile in my heart.

UPDATE: Did Michael Brown just get fired from his position as head of FEMA? I wish I could say yes. Turns out he was sort-of, kind-of, in a way let go, but not in such a way that he has to go back to his previous career (Oops, that's right! He got fired from his last job!) . Better late than never, I suppose.