10/14/2005 9:06:43 PM
Daily Journal
By Robert S. McElvaine
Special to The Baltimore Sun
<snip> Because Barbour is a Republican, the Bush team was not in a political position to shift blame to the state government in Mississippi. Barbour, moreover, fancies himself a contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. He plainly sees Katrina as an opportunity to build for himself a Rudy Giuliani-like reputation for crisis leadership.
Throughout the calamity, Barbour has not been willing to criticize the Bush administration or federal relief efforts. On the contrary, he has set himself up as the head cheerleader for Bush and FEMA. He repeatedly has dismissed all criticism of federal response to the catastrophe.
"That's all cooked up by the news media and a few enemies of George Bush," he contends. "The federal government has been fabulous in our state."
One definition of "fabulous" in my dictionary is "resembling a fable, absurd." If that was what Barbour meant, his statement was accurate. <snip>
http://www.djournal.com/pages/story.asp?ID=204132&pub=1&div=Opinion