But a lot of times, I can't help it.
Bush, no doubt trying to take attention away from the various scandals buzzing around the dung-heap that used to be the White House, visited New Orleans yesterday. The city - which is barely beginning to deal with completely devastated neighborhoods, which is still dealing with a foot of water in some places, and which is forced to practically beg the federal government for money to rebuild and for a sufficient levee system - is, in the president's critical opinion, "a heckuva place."
According to the New York Times, "President Bush made his first trip here in three months on Thursday and declared that New Orleans was 'a heck of a place to bring your family' and that it had 'some of the greatest food in the world and some wonderful fun.'
President Bush and Mayor C. Ray Nagin of New Orleans attended a meeting Thursday with the city's political and business leaders.
Mr. Bush spent his brief visit in a meeting with political and business leaders on the edge of the Garden District, the grand neighborhood largely untouched by the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina, and saw little devastation. He did not go into the city's hardest-hit areas or to Jackson Square, where several hundred girls from the Academy of the Sacred Heart staged a protest demanding stronger levees.
Mr. Bush's motorcade did pass some abandoned neighborhoods as it traveled on Interstate 10 into the city.
'It may be hard for you to see, but from when I first came here to today, New Orleans is reminding me of the city I used to come to visit,' the president told the local leaders at the Convention and Visitors Bureau, an independent group set up to attract business and tourism to the city."
It amazes me that anyone, much less the so-called "Leader of the Free World," can be so doggedly out of touch, so completely lacking in empathy or just simple humanity. New Orleans was a disaster, and he's still hinting at the happy days he spent drunkenly cruising Bourbon Street. How much death, how much suffering, would it take for this man to pop out of that warm little bubble he must, fetus-like, float around in?
Here's how it breaks down, minus the all the sunshine Bush is blowing that's making everyone walk funny:
New Orleans wants to build levees that can withstand Category 5 storms; Bush says he'll give them enough money to build levees that are designed for Category 2, maaaybe Category 3, storms.
The city needs some leadership regarding its rebuilding plan, which depends on $17 billion from the federal government; Bush failed to acknowledge the plan in any way.
And this is kind of petty, but Bush's visit happened to be during a time when Gov. Kathleen Blanco was out of the country. Bush's people say it wasn't on purpose, but there's friction between the two and Bush is well-known for holding grudges. Hm. Interesting. By the way, Blanco was in The Netherlands checking out the country's state-of-the art flood control system.
But this is my favorite part:
From New Orleans, Mr. Bush traveled to Waveland and Bay St. Louis in Mississippi, where he viewed destruction along the Gulf Coast. He then headed for Palm Beach, Fla., for a closed-door $4 million fund-raiser for the Republican National Committee and Republican candidates at the home of Dwight Schar, a homebuilder and a co-owner of the Washington Redskins.
OK, who wants to start the pool on how long it takes Schar to win a no-bid contract to rebuild New Orleans neighborhoods? Instead of raising money for his party (and this goes for the Democrats, too), I'd like to see Bush telling his buddies to put that cash into a fund dedicated to rebuilding New Orleans. All those millions of dollars could go a long way.
I wonder if any of those guys would consider it a heckuva deal.
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