You wouldn’t know it and you probably haven’t heard it, but the
American people — unlike 90 percent of the media — don’t blame President Bush for the miserable
handling of the Gulf Coast’s brutalization at the hands of
Hurricane Katrina.
As has happened before when under attack by the fifth column of
the fourth estate, his approval rating actually shot up five
points the week of the disaster. Still, a 45 percent rating is
nothing to shout about except that it follows the annual braying
about his vacation and the precipitous rise in gasoline prices.
But low though they may be, Bush’s approval numbers still tower
over those of the Congress and especially those of the media. As
has been the case since the Vietnam War/Watergate era, the media
still think themselves capable of shaping and shading the news
rather than simply reporting it.
And for years they had been successful in their efforts. But
today’s alternative news outlets, returning to the basics forgotten
or ignored by the old media, have opened the eyes of millions of
Americans who have access to cable and the Internet. With the
national undressing of liberal icons like Dan Rather, many viewers
have finally perceived the whiff of an agenda, one they have been
voting against for the last ten years.
Almost as soon as the levees burst, a wave of accusations washed
across the front pages of liberal house organs and a torrent of
recriminations splashed across TV screens throughout the land.
First, global warming was cited as the cause for the misery, which
led naturally to blaming Bush for not signing the noxious Kyoto
treaty.
When that failed miserably, the looting, raping, and murders
were blamed, not on the vicious perpetrators, but — you guessed it
— on Bush’s siphoning off National Guard troops to Iraq. After it
was revealed that Governor Blanco had over 7,000 Louisiana NG
soldiers at her immediate disposal, that tack was dropped in favor
of the irrational and unprovable ditty that “Bush hates
blacks.”
On it went until the abomination hit a new low with Sunday’s edition of
Meet the Press, where Tim Russert’s angry grilling of
Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff was disrespectful at best
and yellow journalism at worst. After his soap-opera interview with
tearful Jefferson Parish president Aaron Broussard, we had a clue
as to why the leadership in Louisiana failed.
Meanwhile, out on the fringes of the far-left
magic carpet, there were charges that Bush withheld aid because
he needed the tragedy to divert the groundswell of dozens who
support “Peace Mom” Cindy Sheehan, or to fill the coffers of his
Halliburton buddies by allowing already high oil prices to
skyrocket further. Guess his “war for oil” in Iraq isn’t working
out so well in that regard after all.
Another theory recently posited by the tinfoil-hat crowd holds
that Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist actually died
weeks ago, but that Bush hushed up his death until Sunday in order
to cover up his culpability for his plan to let thousands die in
order to drive up oil prices, vent his racism, and silence the
Peace Mom. Got it?
In a week that some will eventually call surreal but is more and
more becoming a way of life in the “victimized” blue areas of the
country, the left and its media are playing the dangerous game of
class warfare. And as usual, when truth becomes the first casualty,
the people will see through the deceptions.
Here in liberal Connecticut, it’s hard to find one person who
feels that the people of Louisiana have been dealt with unfairly or
along racial lines by the Bush Administration. Granted, there are
many here who indeed loathe the President and his party but, like
most of the liberal Northeast and even in California, the people
seem to elect Republicans to statewide executive positions.
They know that in times of fiscal or physical disaster, it is
the “Daddy” party that can be trusted to take quick and decisive
action; the lack of which most certainly doomed the victims in New
Orleans, as surely as Katrina’s unmerciful blows.
But the blame Bush gambit continues, at least until next Monday
when the rescheduled John Roberts judicial hearings commence. Till
then, the media will be sharpening their talons as the death of
William Rehnquist has bought them another week of gratuitous
finger-pointing and grievous hand-wringing.
And as they seek to flay Roberts as another knuckle-dragging,
Bush black-shirt, the cries of the people of New Orleans will be
just a distant memory. They’ve served their purpose.
