George "Delano" Bush offers a New Deal vision

Bush Pledges Historic Effort To Help Gulf Coast Recover:

"Vickie Johnston, 37, a hairdresser, sneaked into the city Thursday only to learn she had lost everything -- her clothes, furniture, and irreplaceables such as correspondence and photos. She voted for Bush twice but feels betrayed by all government. 'They knew New Orleans was a fishbowl. They knew,' she said. 'Now it's a toilet bowl. How can they do this to us? Why did they let the water get so high?'"

While interviewing Jack Kemp on Fox News Channel this afternoon about the president's plan, John Gibson noted that Judge Napolitano, off-camera, had referred to the president as "George 'Delano' Bush" (at least that is the way I heard it). The link is to a Washington Post report on last night's speech which promised a massive federal effort that some are beginning to liken to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. Later, on camera, the Judge discussed the constitutionality of the president's plan and ended by calling him "Franklin Delano Bush." I'm going to take up the constitutional issue shortly.

As I write, Fox has a chopper in N.O. transmitting video of an apartment house burning. The commentary mentions the stress the local firefighters are under, but nothing about FEMA's folly of sending 1400 professional firefighters to Atlanta for sexual harassment training.

To return to the quote from the Post piece, an uncharitable observation might be that the people of New Orleans were aware they were in a bowl. I was there once for a Young Republican convention and the realization that, standing at street level, you had to look up to see the ships at the docks on the river was quite a jolt. I knew I wasn't at Penn's Landing in Philadelphia or Maine Avenue in DC where river level is lower than the streets, even at high tide.

The president expressed some not very deep thoughts himself; for example:
"As all of us saw on television," Bush said, "there is also some deep, persistent poverty in this region as well. That poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America. We have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action."
One wonders if the president somehow managed to sleep through four decades of anti-poverty programs which haven't worked very well.

On the other hand, he also said some things that make sense, like this:
"... he suggested that local authorities would have to revisit zoning laws and building codes 'to avoid a repeat of what we've seen' and suggested that sections of New Orleans be rebuilt on 'higher ground.'"