Bush stayed on vacation for days after the hurricane struck -- as did vice president Cheney and Condi Rice (who BEGAN her vacation after the worst natural disaster in our nation's history battered her home state of Alabama). Bush went on political jaunts, took more than two days to address the country and goofed around while the waters were rising and people were dying. When he finally toured the destruction, Bush joked around in New Orleans about his younger days of hard partying. (Can anyone doubt Cindy Sheehan now? I wasn't sure what to think when she said Bush acted like he was at a party when he was supposed to be comforting grieving families? I thought, "Really?" But now we've seen Bush do the very same thing ON NATIONAL TV.)
But now, now that his POLITICAL life is in danger, Bush is panicking.
As Mr. Bush spoke, Vice President Dick Cheney and Karl Rove, the president's senior political adviser, listened on the sidelines, as did Dan Bartlett, the counselor to the president and Mr. Bush's overseer of communications strategy. Their presence underscored how seriously the White House is reacting to the political crisis it faces.That's right. People have died because of Bush's dereliction of duty, his complete indifference to human suffering. But what does he do when disaster strikes? He calls in political hacks under investigation for endangering national security and image doctors to repair the POLITICAL damage. Because that's clearly all that Bush cares about. If it isn't, why did Bush stay on vacation for days while people were dying? Why did vice president Cheney stay on vacation for some SIX DAYS after the hurricane battered this country? Why did Sec. of State Condi Rice LEAVE for vacation while New Orleans was spiraling into despair and go to a fancy Broadway show (tickets cost $100 for the connected and powerful people who can score them), play tennis with Monica Seles and buy obscenely expensive shoes on Fifth Avenue? Why did Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld go on a political jaunt with Bush to California on Tuesday instead of getting ready to send in the troops? Kanye West was partly right when he said Bush doesn't care about black people: Bush doesn't care about anybody but himself.
