'Crippled beyond repair'

Can we drown it on Burbon Street?

Hurricane Katrina's latest fatality should be FEMA, the nation's disaster response agency, a Senate inquiry concluded in calling for a government overhaul to avoid future failures like those the devastating storm exposed.

Eighty-six recommendations by the bipartisan panel indicate the United States is still woefully unprepared for a storm of Katrina's scope with the start of the hurricane season little more than a month away.

The recommendations conclude that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is crippled beyond repair by years of poor leadership and inadequate funding. They call for a new agency — the National Preparedness and Response Authority — to plan and carry out relief missions for domestic disasters.

Although the proposed changes do not place blame on any official or government agency, Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., will offer "additional views" to the panel's findings in a statement accusing President Bush of failing "to provide critical leadership when it was most needed."

Looks like someone recognizes a sinking ship when he sees one, and is jumping off.

But what makes the Senate panel think the National Preparedness and Response Authority would be any different than FEMA? Who is going to appoint the key staff? The same person who appointed unqualified political cronies with no emergency management experience to FEMA?

And how obedient and loyal of Bush's Senate lap dogs not to assign blame when it's obvious where that blame lies. As much as they want to distance themselves from Bush before November, they don't want to risk losing his fund-raising help (especially if they don't have to appear with him in public).

Under President Bill Clinton, FEMA was transformed from one of the worst federal agencies to one of the best, so it's clear who's responsible for its rapid free fall.

Scrapping the agency that Bush ruined isn't going to improve the federal response to future emergencies if Bush is going to be responsible for assembling FEMA's replacement. The fault doesn't lie with the unqualified fools who were sent by Bush to collect federal paychecks at FEMA. It lies with the person who sent them there.

So don't just criticize Bush for failing to provide critical leadership, Joe. That's like criticizing a duck for quacking. Criticize Bush for inheriting an effective key federal agency and ruining it to the point that it's now considered "crippled beyond repair."