Hughes Is Varnishing the Nation's Tarnish

While Hughes told employees that America's problems could be solved with message discipline, about 10 blocks away, MoveOn was struggling to maintain its message discipline at its protest outside the White House. When the MoveOn organizers arrived, there was already a demonstration underway calling for intervention in Darfur, and the Katrina and Darfur demonstrators intermingled in an eclectic line demanding "Help Hurricane Victims" and "Stop the Genocide."

Tom Matzzie, a MoveOn official, told the cameras: "This is what government looks like when it is in the hands of people who don't believe in government."

But it proved difficult to keep the focus on the hurricane. Some of the MoveOn demonstrators surrounded a conservative heckler, who shouted: "You're a bunch of loony liberals."

"Bush dug himself a hole by going to Iraq," one of the liberals shouted back.

"What does Iraq have to do with Katrina, for crying out loud?" the conservative demanded.

"Because he doesn't care about poor people," came the reply.

Another conservative, Clarice McMillan, blurted out: "My country, right or wrong!"

Over with the protesters, Lisa Petrovich, a systems analyst from Montgomery County, was ambivalent. She is outraged about the response to the storm: Her mother and sister lost their homes and jobs in New Orleans and are living with her. But at the same time, she said of the protest, "I think there may be some opportunism."