WP: For Bush, a Deepening Divide

[kskiska]

Katrina Crisis Brings No Repeat of 9/11 Bipartisanship

When terrorists struck on Sept. 11, 2001, Americans came together in grief and resolve, rallying behind President Bush in an extraordinary show of national unity. But when Hurricane Katrina hit last week, the opposite occurred, with Americans dividing along sharply partisan lines in their judgment of the president's and the federal government's response.

The starkly different verdicts on Bush's stewardship of the two biggest crises of his presidency underscore the deepening polarization of the electorate that has occurred on his watch. This gaping divide has left the president with no reservoir of good will among his political opponents at a critical moment of national need and has touched off a fresh debate about whether he could have done anything to prevent it.

To his critics, Bush is now reaping what he has sown. Their case against him goes as follows: Facing a divided nation, the president has eschewed unity in both his governing strategy and his political blueprint. These opponents argue that he has favored confrontation over conciliation with the Democrats while favoring a set of policies aimed at deepening support among his conservative base at the expense of ideas that might produce bipartisan consensus and broader approval among the voters. His allies and advisers, while acknowledging that polarization has worsened during the past five years, say the opposition party bears the brunt of responsibility. Democrats, by this reckoning, have rebuffed Bush's efforts at bipartisanship, put up a wall to ideas that once enjoyed some support on their side, and, even in the current crisis along the Gulf Coast, are seeking to score political points rather than joining hands with the president to speed the recovery and relief to the victims.

Wherever reality lies between these mutual recriminations, the path from post-9/11 unity to the rancor and finger-pointing in the aftermath of Katrina's fury charts a clear deterioration in political consensus in the United States and a growing willingness to interpret events through a partisan prism. It is a problem that now appears destined to follow Bush through the final years of his presidency -- a clear failure of his 2000 campaign promise to be a "uniter, not a divider."

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/06/AR2005090601687.html

[rfranklin]

1. Bipartisanship is code for fucking us up the butt...

without lube and telling us to call out his name as if it was feeling good.

[Born Free]

19. It's the incompetence !

It's not partisan politics, heck the democrats bent over backward to give this incompetent appointee to the white house every benefit of doubt - the man lacks the ability to make sound decisions. The media will take their spin and regurgitate it over and over again, but when you look at the facts it is clear, the guy in the white house can not make good decision that are best for America. He never has been able to do this as he was never taught the consequences of making poor decisions - his mommy always bailed him out and just as any spoiled child he grew up rotten to the core.

Even now they are spinning it as "bush haters" - it's not bush we hate it's the poor decisions he makes that keep dragging America down. Don't buy into the "Parisian politics" argument, it's their way of ignoring the truth. Change the argument - "it's the incompetence stupid!"

[saigon68]

21. Sounds like Joe Biden and Joe Limpmann at work

DINOs both, they drop to their knees in front of the chimp

[KansDem]

29. The next time someone mentions "bipartisanship"

Respond by saying, "OK, I'll hug your elephant and you can kiss my ass."*

________
*Seen on a bumper sticker

[WinkyDink]

30. Love it!!

Put that one in my permanent repertoire!

[Bumblebee]

2. Read Maureen in the NYT!

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/07/opinion/07dowd.html?hp

"Let's play the blame game: the man who benefited more than anyone in history from safety nets set up by family did not bother to provide one for those who lost their families."

[Spazito]

11. Whoa! That makes the last 3, at least, columns that have

tore massive strips off bush. She is not backing down one iota. Go Maureen!

[calimary]

28. She has a HUGE karmic debt to pay. All that hooting at Al Gore during

Campaign 2000, Oh he's changed into earth tones! Yuk-yuk-yuk what a dweeb! What a phony! Oh he says he's invented the internet. Yuk-yuk-yuk what a liar! What a geek! Well, you helped bush get in, girlie-girl. Happy now? That's evidently what you thought was so much better for our country.

Bitch!!!

You are just one more of the pathetic, gullible enablers who helped make all this possible. The blood, destruction, anguish, and death are all on YOUR head, too.

Glad you finally came around. You're about five years TOO LATE. An eternity too late for the city of New Orleans. Better late than never, I guess...

Glad dear Maureen has finally seen the light. Too bad so many souls had to pay for her tardiness and past indifference.

This may be the ONE MOST IMPORTANT REASON why we fight for IMPEACHMENT of this bastard. So all those whose lives he squandered won't have died in vain. In his war (Iraq), and in his criminal negligence (New Orleans). We need to do it for THEM.

[kansasblue]

3. The Red Cross is a heavy bloated bureaucracy.

There are more efficient charities. Check with Consumer Reports.

[Old and In the Way]

4. That's what happens whe you steal elections.

He does not have the moral authority to lead. He is an incompetent boy-king who has never taken personal or public responsibility for anything of his screw-ups. He panders to his shrinking base instead of considering that the majority might actually have an equally important agenda for this country....like fixing levees and investing in this country instead of pissing our country down the drain fighting bogus wars in the ME.

[yurbud]

5. People rallied around Bush after 9/11 to show national unity, NOT

because he performed in any exceptional way. He yelled through a bullhorn and read the speeches that were given to him. I'm pretty sure just about anyone could have done that.

[yurbud]

6. Real test next terrorist attack--intended to "rally" us for Iran War

[aquart]

18. Terrorism is passe.

You are still letting Bush direct your thinking. NO TERRORIST HAS EVER DESTROYED A CITY. Bush did.

Terrorism is ridiculous as a threat now. Ridiculous.

[yurbud]

27. hope you are right--but wouldn't bet on it

[grasswire]

7. the difference is..........

....that on 9-11 Americans were blindsided by a massive terrorist attack that was (we were told) unpredictable. In LA, there is no external enemy for us to stand against, and we KNOW the damage was forecast.

Damn, damn, damn these shapeshifters.

[The_Casual_Observer]

8. The predictions about the hurricane were dire., even a week before it

made land. There was no excuse for their inaction.

[krkaufman]

9. What total bull#$%! The article takes the typical "two opinions" approach

This article harkens to most pre-Katrina media coverage, taking the typical "two opinions" approach, and decries "polarization" -- as if there isn't empirical evidence of Bush's failures.

It's just nonsensical horse-race analysis of "views" and polls, disregarding the mound of evidence that Bush's incompetence and negligence engineered the failure of the federal response to Katrina.

[Dr Fate]

14. It fools folks into the"the truth must be somewhere in the middle" mindset

I run into that all the time- where you get accused of being "partisan" no matter how closely you stick to the facts...

[Melodybe]

17. Yes it does the Washington Post and the Bush family go way back

Online Jornal had a great history of the paper's founding family and the Bush family, they go back to the 30's atleast.

With the exception of a few articles I wish people would quit posting their lies here, it's all just poison we should avoid it.

[Cocoa]

22. "Bush's critics say..."

followed by a statement of fact. It's a neat trick, as if the truth is a matter of debate.

"Bush's critics say that no WMDs were found in Iraq."

[blonndee]

10. Code for: NOT TAKING IT ANYMORE!

Good! Starts out "divide," per Rovian spin, then Dems are vindicated. We are ON THE RIGHT SIDE and can't give up! It's going to happen, my friends. It's tough, but we gotta perservere. These fucks are going down. Mark my words. And if I'm wrong, I'll defect. That I promise you.

[Straight Shooter]

12. I don't need a "partisan prism" to view objectively the Katrina disaster.

F*ck the Washington Post for such a ridiculous statement. The truth does not rest somewhere in between. The truth is what it is, and it's there in all its naked horror and ugliness.

george w. bush is unto himself a crime against humanity.

[cyr330]

13. "Wherever reality lies between these mutual. . .

recriminations. . ." What a bunch of typical horseshit on the part of the media CUN*S. They are not capable of telling the truth about anything. For instance, the Republicans could say that the earth is flat while the Dems would state, "no, there's proof that it's round." The media would give equal credibilty to both. They've already proven themselves to be charlatans, nothing but stenographers, and I don't care if they try to kiss up now; it's too goddamned late for that. We can put a good bit of blame on them that we're stuck with the shithole in chief that we have. . . .

[IndianaGreen]

15. Bush should have been held accountable for 9/11

Bush's failure to react promptly after the North WTC tower was hit, resulted in the terrorist strikes on the South WTC tower and the Pentagon.

The folks in the Army Budget Office at the Pentagon would be alive today had Bush acted!

8:45 a.m. (all times are EDT): A hijacked passenger jet, American Airlines Flight 11 out of Boston, Massachusetts, crashes into the north tower of the World Trade Center, tearing a gaping hole in the building and setting it afire.

9:03 a.m.: A second hijacked airliner, United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston, crashes into the south tower of the World Trade Center and explodes. Both buildings are burning.

<snip>

9:43 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon, sending up a huge plume of smoke. Evacuation begins immediately.

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:OQmmsiJgSc8J:www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/11/chronology.attack/+9-11+timeline&hl=en

[cliss]

16. No question. He skated on that one.

That's why he's probably figuring he'll get a Get Out of Jail Card this time, too.

He was able to use 9/11 as a bludgeon to beat us over the head with. He milked that disaster for all it was worth. Despite the fact that HE HIMSELF was responsible for it.

Just give it another week, he thinks. "I'll be home free by then".

[bpilgrim]

20. "finger-pointing" (blame game) this is typical of our current M$MWs

when the chimp is in trouble try to make it look like both sides are just spinning, but mostly the Dem's, without ANY of the devastating FACTS on the ground and leave it up to the reader to choose, based on emotion who is right, since there isn't enough actual info to make an actual informed opinion :puke:


more...
http://media.globalfreepress.com

Thank Gore he 'invented' the INTERNETs :bounce:

peace

[Hekate]

23. Bush Bipartisanship: Hold still, honey, and it won't hurt ...

Bush's "bipartisanship" has always reminded me of date rape. He feels proud because he's made a conquest he can boast about; she feels shamed into silence because she feels stupid and dirty.

I think it may be why more congressional Democrats don't speak out more forcefully about what sort of lies they were fed to make them go along with whatever cockamamie scheme * came up with -- like participating in photo ops while signing the No Child Left Behind Act, the way Ted Kennedy did. Or signing on to the USA PATRIOT Act. Or coming out of committee meetings having seen Top Secret info that convinced you to go along, like Diane Feinstein.

Of course there's always the threat to your firstborn option. Bush and minions seem to have a way of scaring the bejeebers out of dissenters.

Hekate

[Massachusetts]

24. "WP: For Bush, a Deepening Divide"

Revolution is in the AIR!

[Stinky The Clown]

25. Deepening divide? You fuckin' betcha there's a divide.

I disagree that it is Democrat vs Republican.

Rather, it is thinking people vs his accepting base of supporters.

I need look no further than my own back yard. I've been a liberal, but not a rabid lefty nut. I am now far closer to being a rabid lefty nut than a run-of-the-mill liberal. I am more polarized than I have ever been at any time in my life.

Then I look at my neighbor. He's been a lifelong Republican. Not a RW nutjob. More like a Rockefeller Republican. A reasonable man. And he thinks. So where is he these days? Staunchly anti-Bush. Voted for Kerry last time around. His first vote for a Democratic presidential candidate, maybe ever.

And just this weekend, he brought it up to me how genuinely angry he is at Bush over this whole Katrina thing.

As I see it, the store cited in the OP is a bit off. Bush's problems are wider and deeper than Democrat vs Republican.

[JugDack]

26. They sound like they sympathize with him!

Oh how tough it is to be president with everybody playing politics. Scum. I've lost hope that we're ever going to get a true accounting of any of these things (9/11, Iraq, Plame, etc. and now NOLA). It takes too much concentration on the part of the electorate. They'd have to follow a story for more than a few days, and that just doesn't happen these days. So, the DU'ers and the Freepers throw charges back and forth and the MSM says it's politics and the folks in the middle yawn and go back to watching Survivor. We've already lost any chance to hold Bush accountable for NOLA. We might get FEMA Chief Brown's resignation, but that's as far as it will go. If anything, Dems are going to take more of a hit for "playing politics with human suffering".