Finger Pointing & Blame Gaming -- Where Does The Buck Stop President Bush?

Bush administration media spin doctors like to hit the public with snappy two or three word phrases. This past week, they have been trying to spin the responsibility for the slow response to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina away from President Bush. The two main deflection phrases being used from Bush on down to his press secretary Scott McClelland are “blame game” and “finger pointing.” I started hearing Rush Limbaugh sputtering these phrases about Wednesday, August 31. Of course, Rush would use these terms mixed in the same sentence with other terms like “Democrats” or “liberals” or the name of some news person or politician that might have dared utter the slightest criticism of President Bush.

So Rush hammered away with the “finger pointing” and “blame game” and so did the administration – once they all ambled back from a month of vacation. You would be thinking that with an ongoing war in Iraq with a steadily growing death count of American soldiers the President and his cabinet would be sticking a little closer to the command center. I digress…maybe I am a little jealous because I have never had a month long vacation. Anyway, these two two-word phrases have sprouted up all over the news this week. Here are a few examples from the newspapers published on Friday, September 9, 2005.

From the Gannett News Service:

WASHINGTON — The finger pointing over finger-pointing escalated Thursday, even as President Bush declared a national day of prayer to help the country deal with Hurricane Katrina's deadly aftermath…The political atmosphere has turned as toxic as the floodwaters of New Orleans…. University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato labeled it "the fastest blame game in history."

Columnist E. J. Dionne Jr. wrote this in column published in various papers across the nation on Friday, September 9, 2005:

The following is brought to you by the word "accountability." Keep that word in mind whenever you hear defenders of President Bush accusing his political opponents of playing the "blame game" by daring to pose pointed questions about why so many people in New Orleans, most of them very poor, had to wait so long for relief from their suffering.
The Bush White House must have run the phrases "blame game" and "finger-pointing" through its focus groups. In his Wednesday briefing, White House press secretary Scott McClellan used variations on those formulations eight times each. McClellan neatly rolled them into a single sentence when he told off a reporter who had the nerve to ask whether the president had confidence in those who oversaw the federal relief effort. "If you want to continue to engage in finger-pointing and blame-gaming, that's fine," McClellan harrumphed.

The Christian Science Monitor ran this story:

Partisan bickering over Katrina escalates - to peril of both sides

Unlike 9/11, when Americans came together, the hurricane's aftermath has intensified the polarization of the Bush years.

By Linda Feldmann Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
WASHINGTON – As distasteful as it is to many Americans, the politics of hurricane Katrina have rushed in to fill the agendas of elected officials nearly as quickly as the floodwaters inundated New Orleans.
For the Bush administration, the mantra this week became "no blame-gaming, no finger-pointing" as it sought to recover from the early perception of a slow response to the disaster. The message has been that this is an administration of action, not partisan bickering, and that the task at hand is to address the situation on the ground. President Bush sent Congress a request for $51.8 billion in additional hurricane aid. Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, toured New Orleans and the Gulf region Thursday, talking to local officials and first-responders.
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Take note that these stories were published on Friday, Sept. 9. Of course, the theme was that it was all Democrats pointing fingers at the Bush administration and making the Democrats the focus of the blame game. Certainly there were Democrats speaking out against the federal response to the Katrina disaster. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., condemned the "staggering incompetence of this national government," during debate Thursday over $51.8 billion in post-Katrina aid proposed by Bush.

Of course, the Democrats were not the only finger-pointing, blame gamers. The Republican National Committee sent an e-mail of a Washington Post story claiming that Louisiana's congressional delegation often pushed spending by the Army Corps of Engineers that had little to do with flood control in New Orleans. One paper noted that Bush and Republican allies have attempted to focus on post-Katrina progress. But some Democrats have charged that while that is the public stance, Bush allies also are handing criticism of state and local governments out the back door.

With the exception of solitaire, most games take at least two to play. By the end of this past week, it certainly appears there was bi-partisan finger pointing and blame gaming. But what I found very interesting is what was happening the week leading up to Labor Day. As I previously pointed out, during the first week of the disaster, Rush was babbling these phases and blaming the Democrats and the leftie bloggers and everybody but the Bush administration. What was actually going on was quite different.

On Wednesday, August 31, the Manchester Union-Leader published this editorial. In case you do not know this paper, it is one of the most conservative daily newspapers in America.

Bush and Katrina: A time for action, not aloofness

AS THE EXTENT of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation became clearer on Tuesday — millions without power, tens of thousands homeless, a death toll unknowable because rescue crews can’t reach some regions — President Bush carried on with his plans to speak in San Diego, as if nothing important had happened the day before.
Katrina already is measured as one of the worst storms in American history. And yet, President Bush decided that his plans to commemorate the 60th anniversary of VJ Day with a speech were more pressing than responding to the carnage.
A better leader would have flown straight to the disaster zone and announced the immediate mobilization of every available resource to rescue the stranded, find and bury the dead, and keep the survivors fed, clothed, sheltered and free of disease.
The cool, confident, intuitive leadership Bush exhibited in his first term, particularly in the months immediately following Sept. 11, 2001, has vanished. In its place is a diffident detachment unsuitable for the leader of a nation facing war, natural disaster and economic uncertainty.
Wherever the old George W. Bush went, we sure wish we had him back.
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That is rather strong finger pointing aimed at the President, but it is coming from a newspaper. What were actual Republicans saying by the end of the first week of the disaster? Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich said, “If we can’t respond faster than this to an event we saw coming across the Gulf for days, then why do we think we’re prepared to respond to a nuclear or biological attack?” Republican Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts called the government’s response “an embarrassment”.

Senate majority leader, Republican Bill Frist called for congressional hearings, and other Republicans normally loyal to Bush questioned whether the administration could handle a terrorist attack, given its lackluster response to Katrina.

Senator John Kyl, Republican of Arizona, said the federal response suggested flaws in the nation's preparedness for another terrorist assault. Kyl said, ''This damage could just as easily have been caused by a terrorist attack, and many if not most of the same elements are involved in responding to natural disasters. ''There has to be a plan in place -- along with adequate resources -- to be able to evacuate people, or at least provide relief supplies before panic sets in. None of this appears to have been done in Louisiana."
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Who was playing the blame game and doing the finger pointing? It appears that President Bush own party members and some of the media that have been his big supporters were major participants. Of course, all the keep key Bush administration players were not really regrouped from vacation until around Labor Day. Then they had to get the spin cycle turning and since then the Bush team has been hammering us with “finger pointing” and “blame game.” I do not know about you, but these phrases strike me as rather junior high school. It is as if the Administration is trying to dumb down the importance of the overall response to this natural disaster to a vocabulary that regular listeners of Rush Limbaugh can use in everyday conversation with their friends and family.

Unless I have missed it on the media coverage, senators and congressional representatives are not down on the Gulf Coast picking up the pieces. They are in Washingotn and I would think now would be an ideal time to establish responsibility, i.e., blame game, of who was in charge of carrying out the disaster plans. Likewise, if individuals are not qualified for their positions and better-qualified individuals need to be brought in, i.e. finger pointing, then why not do it when everything is fresh in everybody’s mind. Maybe the Bush administration might want to hold back any findings until after the 2006 mid-term elections. This is an issue of national security. We could have another category 5 hurricane hit the Gulf Coast next week.

Four years ago, the twin towers of the World Trade Center came tumbling down. Since then our government has created the Department of Homeland Security to keep us safer from terrorist attacks and natural disasters. Hurricane Katrina was on the radar screen. You and I could watch it coming on the weather channels or the internet, but FEMA could not get water to thousands of people stranded at the Super Dome for three days after the hurricane left. It should be starting to be clear that the Bush administration has been playing a number of games since it took over. Blame-avoidance is one of their games. Not pointing the finger at anyone working for George Bush is another – not matter who incompetent or under-qualified the official.

Maybe on September 16, instead of a national day of prayer for the hurricane victims, maybe we could have a national day of silence. Shut off the televisions, radios, MP3s, etc. and just be quiet for once. This will not happen. It would be bad for business and it would not be good for consumers. It might be good for our individual souls, but that does not put squat on the Nation’s bottom line. Today is September 11 and we as a nation have some hard work to do and hard thinking too.