Conservatives are complaining that the reason liberals object to Dubya's plans for New Orleans is that they're afraid a conservative approach might succeed. In fact, conservative approaches have succeeded in the past --- like section 8 housing vouchers and the Earned Income Tax Credit. And when they do, liberals urge their application, as they are doing right now, for New Orleans evacuees. Dubya is resisting calls for that, apparently because it might give people the idea that government programs can work.

Oh, by the way, remember Mike Brown, the FEMA head who got bounced because of his agency's failure to handle Katrina? Who better to investigate that failure than Brown himself? He's been rehired... now why ever would that be?

His ostensible job? Trying to diagnose FEMA's failure, which is to say, his own. But we already know what their diagnosis will be. After Dubya's FEMA, and Brown's, not only failed to provide help on its own, but actively repulsed aid offered from all quarters, Dubya's crew is already using that failure as an argument, not that we need better civilian leadership (perish the thought!), but rather that they need to be able to more readily impose martial law...