Ample time

"There will be ample time for people to figure out what went right and what went wrong."

-- George Bush, September 6, 2005, or 141 days ago.

How about now? Nope.

The Bush administration, citing the confidentiality of executive branch communications, said Tuesday that it did not plan to turn over certain documents about Hurricane Katrina or make senior White House officials available for sworn testimony before two Congressional committees investigating the storm response.

The White House this week also formally notified Representative Richard H. Baker, Republican of Louisiana, that it would not support his legislation creating a federally financed reconstruction program for the state that would bail out homeowners and mortgage lenders. Many Louisiana officials consider the bill crucial to recovery, but administration officials said the state would have to use community development money appropriated by Congress.

When, oh when, will unpatriotic Americans like members of Congress who are trying to figure out what went wrong in the response to Hurricane Katrina and prevent a similar fiasco from happening in the future stop playing the blame game?

I'm not privy to confidential White House communications, but from the cheap seats it appears that what went wrong is this: A group of Republicans who had no interest in good governing rigged the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections in order to redistribute the nation's wealth up the economic ladder. Then they installed unqualified cronies in key positions, including the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Then the person who was installed as president took the month of August 2005 off and ignored warnings that the hurricane would do pretty much what it did. Then, after the hurricane hit, they were more interested in looking busy than being busy, and focused not on rescue and recovery efforts, but on getting Halliburton, the "former" company of the person installed as vice president, on board the gravy train that was the reconstruction of the Gulf Coast region.

Sound about right? Did I miss anything?