From the New York Times:
Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary who has been the Bush administration’s point man in fielding criticism of the hurricane relief effort, came under fire Wednesday from some Congressional Democrats for private remarks about the conditions faced by storm survivors that struck the lawmakers as insensitive.
The new criticism was set off by a private and sometimes contentious briefing that Mr. Chertoff and other senior administration officials gave to House members on Tuesday night on the status of relief efforts.
Exactly what was said at the closed-door briefing remained in some dispute Wednesday.
Administration officials and Democrats at the briefing agreed that Mr. Chertoff and other speakers emphasized that news images showing horrendous conditions for evacuees in shelters did not reflect the totality of the federal government’s response.
But administration officials said several remarks that House members attributed to Mr. Chertoff were in fact made by other officials.
For instance, one administration official who was at the briefing said it was Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau at the Pentagon, not Mr. Chertoff, who told House members that television images of sparse relief efforts for evacuees sheltered at the Superdome offered “a small soda-straw view of what was going on.”
Still, much of the Democrats’ criticism was directed at Mr. Chertoff himself.
Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the ranking Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee, said the message he took from Mr. Chertoff’s comments regarding the relief effort was that “what you see is not really what is.”
“People just looked at him,” Mr. Thompson said. “He was the first speaker, and it sort of went downhill after that. People felt we are not going to get the truth here.”
A few Democrats were so upset by the tone of Mr. Chertoff’s remarks that they walked out of the briefing, said Representative Elijah Cummings, Democrat of Maryland, who said he stayed for all of the remarks but became increasingly frustrated by what he heard.
This has become the calling card of the current Democratic leadership: expressing hostility and outrage when the questions they’ve taken great pains to beg turn out looking quite differently after having rubbed up against the alternative narratives that intrude uninvited into their insular world—a world whose “realities” are reinforced by a sensationalistic, adversarial media, and an echo chamber of partisan vitriol.
Rather than being able to integrate new facts, the Dems—who have bet their credibility again and again on preemptive outrage—are forced to impugn the motives of those introducing the new facts, and villify all those who challenge their early, on-the-record presentation of events.
It’s sad, really, as we need two strong, functioning political parties. But all we have now is an increasingly desperate and angry Democratic party who, in their rush to bury the President, continue chopping off their own toes with the partisan shovel.
I hope Chertoff gave it to those bastards with both barrels.
I think, in their fervor to get constituents riled up about certain issues, the Dems acually get caught up in the hype themselves. When they get that inevitable cockblock, they’ve nothing left but frustration at their failed efforts. I think people on both sides of the aisle are beginning to see through the Dems’ political agenda here though. Chop, chop, chop.
’Cept for maybe Andrew Sullivan, who’s still so riled up about gay marriage that he forgot to get gay married.
And on the other side we’ve got the Republicans, who I don’t see much good from. They may be doing something, but this administration couldn’t sell a glass of ice water to a man dying of thirst in the desert.
The problem is, it just isn’t the Democratic Leadership – it’s the uber Left of the Party, which is drowning out the center and right of the Donkeys. No matter how many points you prove them wrong on, it doesn’t matter because Bush is incompetent. My God, you have adolescents calling a Yale MBA stupid.
The entire platform (sub rosa) of their party consists of, “We’re against Bush”. Their problem is that there is nothing that they are for. They offer, unforunately, no viable alternatives.
Impugning, yelling, and asking for meetings for the sole purpose of walking out of them later in “outrage.”
Of course they’re for something! They’re for all you ignorant redneck Chimpy McHitlerburton-worshipping hicks shutting up and doing as your betters tell you!
Your first two paragraphs describe Azael to perfection. SW: Really, no kidding.
Fourteen trailers of food and water or (14 X 30,000 =) 420,000 lbs. for 23,000 or less people in two days means they used over 9 pounds of food and water per person per day to be out of food or water on Aug. 31. Somethin’ ain’t right here, folks.
Joe, what “ain’t right” here is, I am sorely hoping, confined mostly to the blogosphere, the media, and politicians.
I am overwhelmed by the sheer volume of warped, self-righteous, uninformed horseshit that I’ve been reading over the past week, all of it on ready display on various sites (even BoingBoing, for God’s sake, and that’s supposed to be a tech blog).
I haven’t written a thing on my own site, lest I in my outrage contribute to the deluge of self-involved ignorance. There are arguments being made that have so much error deep within their distant foundations–moral error, logical error, factual error–that there is almost no way to address them; certainly, no way that is within my capabilities.
Jeff’s been doing an admirable job here. My capacity for deep disgust, however, has been more than exceeded. My bemused astonishment at the energies that supposedly rational people will expend in order to ignore history, human nature, and the very world around them, has become a gut-level horror.
And all of it, supposedly, in the name of caring…a thin skin of compassion on a cauldron of thick bile.
The joy that I sense behind the political point-scoring that’s going on is beyond revolting. It gives off a stench that, for want of a better phrase, gives my soul the urge to vomit.
I’m no Bible-thumper, no Santorumette. But there is a festering wound growing in our national character, and it’s spewing pus all over the public square right now.
Did you condem (fill in the blank for some Republican) for their hostility and outrage? YOU ARE GUILTY OF HYOPCRACY!!!
— tries to pick up protest banner and slips again in vomit which was spewed when screaming about censorhip —
“echo chamber of partisan vitriol.”
Hmm. I’m more partial to “circle jerk of moonbat hate”.
“The socialogical equivalent of smegma”
OWNED, biotches!
SB: pattern
Bits is bits. Context is everything.
Jeff:
These poor Dem pols just want their hurt feelings assuaged; they need the righteousness of their emotions justified, recognized, and affirmed–because they’re children.
Adults, when they don’t know an answer, admit that they don’t know. Children cry, or respond defensively with emotion, because they’re confused, frustrated, and/or are tormented, by the unknown.
These Congresscritters are outraged that their beliefs, formed from TV visuals, aren’t being affirmed, in fact, are doubly outraged because they’re told their conclusions (read: emotions) are in error, as they’re based on a incomplete picture (small soda-straw view).
They want an apology because their emotional feelings have been hurt.
Classic case of mommy party versus daddy party.
Think of all the outrages over the past 10 days, regarding PR blunders, quibbles over statements made after the fact, finger pointing, blame placing (I’ve done my share). It’s a need for emotional affirmation and confirmation because we don’t want to believe that “we” were not able to prevent this catastrophe.
But I think in reality, “we” have lost perspective of this world because “we” have placed man at the center–the center of attention, the nexus of the all-powerful, all-knowing, decision-making, in-control-of-destiny mankind.
We are not in awe of the power of the world in which we live. We are not in awe of a 400 mile-wide hurricane with 150 mph wind and rain. We believe “we” are in command, and the disaster should’ve been prevented.
I ask: Is that hubris enough for you?
Would any of this be any different under Bernie Kerik?
I mean, obviously it would, but to what extent?
I’m just Raising Questions.
Bennie Thompson started out his political career as mayor of Bolton, Mississippi, my parents’ hometown (pop.800—400 blacks and 400 whites—yee haw!) His momma used to send him over to my grandmother’s house to borrow cups of sugar or eggs.
One thing he did when he became mayor was build a housing project in the middle of the oldest white part of town, pretty much as a way of saying “screw you, honkies.” My grandmother, who liked to say the mayor used to mow her yard, once asked him why he was letting the white part of town get run down. He told her, basically, that it was revenge.
He also bought a new Mercedes and started wearing nice suits. Joe Klein, the author of “Primary Colors,” came to town and wrote a bit about him for Esquire because his election as a black Mississippi official represented progress. Bennie showed up for the interview wearing a pair of overalls and driving a truck. Klein bought the “simple man of the people” bit hook, line, and sinker. People black and white laughed about that article for months.
The way I’ve heard it (my parents moved away before I was born, but I spent summers there) Bennie’s confrontational tactics divided the town even worse and pissed off the whites so bad they built their own whites-only school. I’m sure they were a difficult bunch to deal with—many being racist assholes—but Thompson apparently did little to try and unite everyone. Today, Bolton, Mississippi is a sad, run-down place, which some say is the legacy of mayor, then county supervisor, now congressman, Bennie Thompson.
Looks like he’s still playing divide and conquer. But then, he’s a Democrat.
Exactly my thoughts, Ian. Both sides are simply talking past each other now, all still relying on anecdotal evidence. No one knows all the facts yet, and the ones we think we know are being revised hourly. Yet so many of the shrillest voices are ignorant of the basic civics involved; who is responsible for what, and at what stage.
As Gen. Omar Bradley said, “amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics”. I simply don’t see response times much better than was done for Katrina. The Feds have always claimed 72 to 96 hours as a minimum response time – and that’s when local and state governments have done their job. Seems to me they’d need more time to do these additional jobs, but most citizens received some aid within that time limit. Yet some of our fellow citizens see this magnificent rescue effort and even Houston’s generosity as insufficient. The most insulting to me are the glitteratti – has-been actors and generic rappers climbing over the dead bodies for any small PR value they think can be squeezed from insulting the President.
No one has offered specifics of exactly what delays or mistakes were made in the Federal effort, yet it seems accepted that the time frame to evaluate and fill the needs of 90,000 square miles of destruction should take less than a week, especially in the most flooded and hard to reach areas. This fantasy is the default mode of thinking in what passes for our news gathering and information system, the legacy media.
Or maybe it’s just that the complaint “You didn’t rescue me fast enough” irritates the living shit out of me.
From Fox, (I think)
How long can they keep covering for this idiot?
A good metaphor:
Some ugly metaphors:
A bad metaphor:
Yeah – what Joe said. Especially the reminder about how huge an area was hit by Katrina.
Don’t think anyone would disagree that the majority of coverage has been about New Orleans. There are a lot of good reasons for that yet I think it might important to be aware and remember that the remaining population of New Orleans (biggest non-guess figure I have seen is 40,000) is ~1% of the total 3,840,894 people who live(d)in the counties listed by Governors of LA, MS and AL in their FEMA Requests for Declaration of Major Disaster. (Source – 2004 County Populations, US Census Bureau).