“Bush’s finest hour” The politics of accountability

Last week, I bashed George W. Bush for his incompetent handling of Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, and rightfully so.

For anyone who knows me, or has read this column in the past couple of weeks, criticizing Bush is something I do as regularly as I put on my pants. Over the past several weeks however, with the number of Katrina failures rising as quickly gas prices or the death toll in Iraq, it seems everyone is losing their faith in this president. This is evident in the latest poll numbers, the lowest of Bush’s presidency. Even for him, things fall apart.

Now, I can kick the President while he’s down, or I can do something that will shock everyone, including myself, and commend President Bush.

Last Tuesday, Bush took responsibility for the botched Katrina relief efforts during a Washington press conference. Besides the leadership he showed in the weeks following 9/11, this just might have been his finest hour.

“Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capabilities at all levels of government,” he said. “And to the extent that the federal government didn’t fully do its job right, I take responsibility.”

Those last three words represent a bold leap.

Sure, he couldn’t resist including the words “all levels of government,” and as many have said, he had no choice but to accept responsibility.

These people must not realize the rocky relationship between accountability and politics.

There are those historians who believe even Richard Nixon could have wriggled out of the Watergate scandal if he could have simply said, “I’m sorry. I made some mistakes. Here’s the truth.” Bill Clinton probably wouldn’t have faced impeachment if he had come clean right off the bat. Bush himself has never admitted that the war planning of Iraq was severely flawed. These are just a few examples that prove admitting failure is not an everyday occurrence in politics.

Most importantly, because Bush has accepted the blame, the finger pointing will relax for the time being, and the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast, one of the most challenging endeavors in American history, can truly begin.

Many people say that we are still united. I’d have to disagree with them, for we are obviously as divided as ever. When that particular crisis struck, we rallied together, but only briefly. Unfortunately, there was this little issue called Iraq that killed our unity.

Now perhaps, we gain some of it back. By putting aside partisan politics in the face of this disaster, we will not only achieve more in rebuilding, but it will also say a lot about our nation.

If the President had simply stuttered and refused to shoulder the blame, this would have been impossible.

So, President Bush, I compliment you. Don’t get used to it.

Brian Shreve
Weekly Columnist

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 23 2005. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry