My new Radar column is up:
Fifty-four Republican senators voted against legislation that would have created the independent Katrina commission, and the GOP House is getting ready to pass a bill authorizing a Republican-led inquiry. Their reasoning for rejecting the will of the people? It depends on which politician you ask.
A spokesperson for Senator John McCain says that the senator supports an independent commission. But when pressed if that meant a 9/11-style commission, the response was, “Uh, no.” Ohioan George Voinovich’s office is saying that the senator doesn’t yet have a position on the commission—apparently because he has more pressing concerns than the loss of a major American city and preparing us for a future al Qaeda attack. (This would include preventing the passage of a bill to reduce auto emissions.) Arlen Specter’s spokesperson says that the senator supports a “bipartisan” commission, but not an “independent” one. (Specter apparently believes that independence is overrated.) And Oregon senator Gordon Smith’s office is telling callers that he opposed the 9/11-style commission only because of a technicality in how the legislation was introduced. So the senator would support the amendment if that technicality was fixed? Unlikely. Gordo is merely hiding his unpopular, partisan choice behind a smokescreen of proceduralism.
