Demanding Answers

Loven recounts a series of administration blunders, then quotes White House counselor Dan Bartlett saying the president and his aides are unconcerned for now about the unrelenting criticism.

Craig Gordon writes for Newsday: "White House officials had been looking to Sunday's fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks to change the subject from Iraq and other bad news. Instead, a sort of second-term 9/11 landed on the Gulf Coast, and Bush's response to Hurricane Katrina has created a moment of political peril that threatens to erode his already-weakened standing among voters and reshape his legislative agenda."

About That Agenda

Susan Page writes in USA Today: "His plan to overhaul Social Security? Forget it. Repeal the estate tax? Postponed. Make the 2001 tax cuts permanent? Tougher to finance. Stay the course in Iraq? Questions about the deployment of U.S. resources and National Guard troops for the war have been sharpened. . . .

"[A]fter five years in charge, Bush is being called to account for shortcomings in the administration in a way he wasn't when he was new to office. There is little sense, as there was after 9/11, that criticizing the president is unpatriotic. . . .

"The most fundamental issue ahead may be this: Four years after the Sept. 11 attacks, despite the president's unrelenting focus and the expenditure of billions of dollars for homeland security, the government seemed unable to respond to a crisis that had been forecast days before it happened."

Here's an Option

John Dickerson writes in Slate: "So, what can Bush do to reverse the focus on his own failure? His own sunny optimism, which even he seemed to find unsatisfying, is unlikely to help at this point. . . .

"[I]f the president really wants to turn around the perception that he's failed, he has a better option than belated hyperactivity and spin: Bush should put his own prestige on the line by appearing in an unscripted public forum to answer questions about the government's response to the disaster. He should schedule a press conference, or, better yet, a town hall meeting with residents."

Congress Watch

The Associated Press reports: "House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi says she's told President Bush he should fire Michael Brown.

"She says the Gulf Coast was hit with two disasters last week. First came Hurricane Katrina, then the response of Brown's Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"Pelosi spoke to reporters after the president met with congressional leaders. Asked for his Bush's response, she said, 'The president thanked me for my suggestion.' "

Ed Henry told Aaron Brown on CNN about a contentious meeting on Capitol Hill last night between members of Congress and Cabinet officials.

"We're told that those Cabinet secretaries started out by giving relatively rosy reports about how things are turning out for the better, things are getting better all the time. The first question came from a Republican, not a Democrat. And I'm told that this Republican lawmaker stood up and basically said, all of you deserve failing grades, despite what you're saying right now. The response was a disaster."