Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

The left jumps with glee at Katrina suffering

Cathy Young:

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The political gamesmanship in Katrina's wake hasn't cost any lives -- but it has been repulsive nonetheless. While people were dying or trapped in hellish conditions, many on the left jumped with an indecent glee at the opportunity to blast their Great Satan, President Bush, and his evil reign.

Not that there weren't very good reasons to be harshly critical of Bush, whose response to the disaster was slow and often clueless and insensitive. But that's not enough for the Bush-bashers. Michael Moore, in an open letter to Bush on his website, fingers him as the cause of the disaster: He slashed funds for maintaining the levees in New Orleans, diverted to Iraq the National Guard troops that could have helped in the rescue, and blocked antiglobal warming measures. Others have echoed these charges. Never mind that no serious scientist believes Hurricane Katrina was related to global warming, that there were plenty of troops in nearby areas, they just didn't get to the scene fast enough, or that, according to The Washington Post, flood control projects in New Orleans have received more money per year under the Bush administration than under Clinton.

Meanwhile, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman blames the disaster and its mishandling on conservative small-government ideology. Never mind that Bush, who has hiked domestic discretionary spending by 25 percent, is no more a small-government conservative than Bill Clinton was a socialist. And never mind that there was ample federal money going to Army Corps of Engineers projects in Louisiana, except that a lot of it went to costly boondoggles.

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