Two weeks after Katrina, the president is supposedly trying to move away from the blame game (he's not playing it because he knows he'd lose). He's focusing on a rebuilding strategy in his address to the nation tomorrow night, which might appoint one person to oversee recovery; call on the nation to rally around victims; or lay out a comprehensive relocation plan. One thing the speech won't do, however, is demand an investigation into why his administration failed New Orleans citizens so terribly. That's up to us—and MoveOn.org is coordinating the action.
The MoveOn petition is calling for an independent Hurricane Katrina Commission, modeled after the 9/11 Commission, to investigate government failures in the wake of the hurricane and make policy recommendations to keep us safer. The Note reports that pollster Stan Greeberg found that 83 percent of Americans support an independent commission with equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans—rather than a bicameral commission with more Republicans, another idea that's been floated. Both Dems and some Republicans are behind the independent commission idea. "I don't think the Congress can investigate ourselves," Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., said. And Slade Gorton, former Republican Washington state senator and 9/11 commission member, added: "If we're really going to learn anything from this new catastrophe, that's much more likely to happen through an objective look."
There's still Tom DeLay, of course, arguing that an internal congressional review would be sufficient. "People are too quick to give up their responsibility and duty as congressmen to other people," DeLay said. "We are more than capable of looking at it."
He and his colleagues are also more than capable of finding only what they're looking for. Support the call for an independent commission here .
--Laura Donnelly |
Wednesday, September 14, 2005 4:35 PM
