FEMA response in perspective

Chris posted yesterday on the latest revelations that FEMA had ignored help that was available from other federal agencies, and notes that nobody seems to care and nobody is being held accountable.

Here is a little thought exercise.

Imagine that St. Louis or Phoenix or Cincinnati had been the target of a chemical weapons attack by terrorists. Or that terrorists had blown up the Tennessee River dam system, flooding the Tennessee Valley.

Now, imagine that while all this is going on, the President is on vacation, taking time out for a day trip to California for a photo-op to promote a war and stump his Social Security agenda. Imagine the director of FEMA e-mailing subordinates to complain about restaurants and ask about his wardrobe.

Imagine that later you learn they knew the disasters were imminent, and that they had resources available to help hundreds and thousands of people who were suffering and dying but didn't deploy them.

Now imagine how you would feel. Would you feel safe? Would you feel that your government was prepared and capable of responding to a large scale disaster resulting from a terrorist attack?

Now imagine that the President is a Democrat, and his FEMA director is an incompetent, unqualified patronage appointee. Let's go so far as to imagine that the president is Bill Clinton.

Now, what do you suppose a Republican controlled Congress would be doing about it? And what do you think the right-wing pundits and bloviators would be saying right about now?