Pointing fingers

A Dispatch editorial asserts that while Dennis Hastert's comments about bulldozing New Orleans and not rebuilding it was ill-timed, those who were insulted and angered by his questioning whether New Orleans should be rebuilt on the same site shouldn't be so offended, as it's reasonable to raise the question.

The editorial also contains this nugget:

We will, however, listen to the pleas of White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan who said, "This is not a time to get into any finger-pointing or politics or anything of that nature. This is a time to make sure all our resources available are focused where they need to be, and that is on the people who have been displaced."

This seems to be the refrain of those on the right these days. Sure, it's not time to stop everything and start passing out blame, but as usual, their argument presents a false choice.

Though the right and the editors of the Dispatch suggest that you can't question such rank incompetence at the same time as intense and ongoing relief efforts continue, that's obviously false.

But in the face of such blatant abandonment of thousands of U.S. citizens to an incompetent and ineffective response to their plight, it almost demands that people raise the question of how could this happen, and who was responsible. To suggest it's wrong to ask these questions which are begging to be asked is ridiculous.

The Dispatch feels its unfair to criticize Hastert for his callous comments spoken while thousands were STILL trapped and dying in the murky waters of New Orleans. Then hypoccritically suggest that now is not the time to ask questions about why the response was so hapless and slow.

The only reason Republicans and the right (and Dispatch editors) are yammering that it's "not the time to point fingers" is that they know very well where the fingers will point. And all the fingers of the entire world are pointing squarely at their "strong leader", the disgraceful George W. Bush.