The American Spectator

p> SWINGING AT FRIENDS br> Re: Jay D. Homnick’s Three Days of the Candor : /p>

I wish to thank Mr. Homnick for having in no small way help assuage my anger at President Bush and transform it into something more sustainable — disappointment. Had the President reacted more decisively and quickly to the Katrina disaster and, in particular, the situation in New Orleans, he could have replenished his stock of “political capital” that to date he has spent not very wisely. Not that this should have been his primary reason for exerting forceful leadership during such a crisis since peoples’ lives were at stake. And hence it was no time to worry about the lesser legalities such as posse comitatus, something even Rumsfeld mumbled about on at least one occasion.

p>Bush failed as a leader. No amount of excuse mongering by the administration nor rabid, vile accusatory finger pointing by liberals can diminish nor exaggerate that fact. br> — Dennis Sevakis br> Bloomfield, Michigan /p>

This fellow has missed the boat, literally. I’m getting a little sick and tired of so-called conservatives jumping on the beat-up Bush bandwagon. Yes, a leader should have stepped forward, but that leadership should have been at the local level like Rudy in New York since we have a Constitution dictating state rights and federal limitations. Bush is a convenient punching bag right now for the Left and for our so-called conservative friends like Mr. Homnick. The media and the “experts” should take a look around at average America and see how they really feel about the New Orleans fiasco. I haven’t heard one person in my workplace or my husband’s workplace who defended the people of New Orleans and their behavior (or at the least the behavior shown to us by the press). I personally don’t like people demanding that I help them, yelling at me, and that is what I saw on the TV. My one thought was, Americans don’t act this way. Americans act like the people of Mississippi and Alabama who quietly accepted their fate and went about the job of cleaning up, not demanding that the rest of America help them. The help would come, it ALWAYS does, and they knew that, but in the meantime, they rolled up their sleeves and helped themselves. They didn’t need saving. They went about the business of saving themselves. And that’s the American spirit.

President Bush does not look smaller in my eyes because I know the truth, something Mr. Homnick kept rattling on about but had obviously missed during these “three days of candor.” If any blame needs to be made, it should fall squarely on the feet of 1) personal responsibility of the inhabitants of New Orleans to get out (I saw a lot of cars underwater on the news last night, which doesn’t support the claim that they had no way to get out) and 2) the LOCAL government for not following its own disaster plan (there were a lot of school buses flooded as well). Nowhere in their disaster plan did it recommend housing people in the Superdome or the Convention Center.

p>I think Mr. Homnick needs to dig a little deeper for the truth instead of letting the media color his viewpoint.