Waiting for a Writer

The New York Times published one of the worst editorials in its history today.

George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday, especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and wisdom.

In what seems to be a ritual in this newspaper, the piece was filled with snarky little jabs and little useful opinion.

In what seems to be a ritual in this administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed. He then read an address of a quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast.

The paper goes on to recite a laundry list of things Bush needs to accomplish.

Right now, hundreds of thousands of American refugees need our national concern and care. Thousands of people still need to be rescued from imminent peril. Public health threats must be controlled in New Orleans and throughout southern Mississippi. [Telling, isn't it, that the Times places "concern" above "rescue" and "health" in its little list - Ed] Drivers must be given confidence that gasoline will be available, and profiteering must be brought under control

I guess the President needs to get back to the Oval Office and pull that "control profiteering" lever behind his desk. The Times then drags out the old chestnut they used to bludgeon his father with: Bush is somehow "out of touch" with the reality of the situation.

And nothing about the president's demeanor yesterday - which seemed casual to the point of carelessness - suggested that he understood the depth of the current crisis.

The Times finishes off with a flurry of unfounded accusations and a dire, if unsupported warning: the levees were inadequate (only the equivalent of the Hoover Dam would have been adequate for this storm), the developers were permitted to develop (that would be for affordable housing, another Times cause celebre, though apparently not in this instance), Congress didn't fund corrections for gaping holes (I thought it flooded because the levees failed), and if Bush doesn't come around on this global warming thing, be ready for high-intensity hurricanes as far as the eye can see.

The Times calls that an editorial. I call it a mean-spirited political hatchet job.