Reinhard's Thursday, Sept. 8 article

Reinhard’s article in the Oregonian on Thursday, September 08 is a further reason why this apologist should not be allowed to write in any forum larger than his own notebook.

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He contradicts himself throughout the piece, ignoring inconvenient facts and relying on talking points to hobble together something resembling an argument.

He is, in fact, emblematic of the current political debate.

The entire piece is centered around the “silliness” of the “blame-Bush” crowd. He steps right up to defend his incompetent hero, but near the end states that “Bush backers…shouldn’t offer up knee-jerk defense of the administration.”

So, let’s examine his knee-jerk defense of the administration. (Saying you shouldn’t do something doesn’t mean you won’t do it—only good people do that.)

“Blame-Bush cries largely ignore the fact that officials at other government levels play key roles in this disaster,” he says. Those other officials, however, were appointed by Bush. FEMA, which was organized to protect the nation from disasters such as this, went through a massive reorganization as it was absorbed into the Homeland Security Department. The loss of FEMA’s formerly competent abilities is due to Tom Ridge, the first Homeland Security secretary—and a Bush appointee. The new head of the Homeland Security versioin of FEMA was also appointed by Bush—his qualifications for the job topped out at examining horseflesh. As a caretaker of Arabian stallions, Michael Brown was not fit for the job at FEMA. Bush appointed incompetent men to jobs they were not qualified for; this is his fault.

I heartily blame Bush for that, as well as the tens of thousands of lives that were lost and destroyed because he was on vacation while the governor of Louisiana declared a state of emergency.

Reinhard goes on to ask, “Why did the locals fail to implement their own emergency plans?” The locals were—to put it bluntly—underwater. Local officials may not have had their Rolodexes close to hand.

Many times, aid workers were hindered by the inefficient bureaucracy clogging the new FEMA. The web is rife with stories of people trying to help, but stopped by the government. Airboats in Florida were told to stay away from the area, because of liability. If an airboat crashed, the government might be sued.

A Red Cross plane full of food was not allowed to enter New Orleans airspace because Air Force One was in town, delivering Bush for a photo-op.

It goes on and on.

Federal officials said they could not even get into city limits, despite journalists broadcasting live from downtown. If locals did not implement their own emergency plans, as Reinhard complains, neither did the feds.

So some good-hearted people from around the country went in to rescue people stranded on rooftops. Some of them were celebrities. Reinhard derides them, saying “even anti-Bush celebs were back on the scene after Katrina.”

Sean Penn went around in a boat to rescue people who had no food or water. You’re right, Reinhard, he’s really sticking it to Bush there. These anti-Bush celebs, always hungry for a photo op.

Reinhard also says, “some critics are uninterested in a balanced exploration of the issues. They’re only blame gaming.”

Any balanced exploration will uncover these facts:

Bush cut money for the levees in New Orleans to be reinforced.

Bush’s appointees bungled this disaster spectacularly.

Bush was on vacation for days while people were dying in an American city

Now, there are many other factors involved, but it is apparent Bush is guilty of incompetence on some level. The three facts above will attest to this, even if you juxtapose them with dozens of pro-Bush arguments. But Reinhard refuses to admit any wrongdoing of Bush in his knee-jerk defense, and his plea for a “balanced exploration of the issues” will be fruitless so long as he is adamant that Bush can do no wrong.

His ideology supercedes his sense of logic, and he should be removed from the editorial board of the Oregonian. Any man who so wholeheartedly ignores hard facts in favor of personal ideology does not belong on the editorial pages of a major American newspaper—he belongs in obscurity.