My Tropical Depression

Whatever the government chooses to do, though, it's going to have to do a better job. This is as depressing, in its own way, as the initial botched response to Katrina.

Liberals are bummed, reports the New York Times :

"What looked like a chance to talk up new programs is fast becoming a scramble to save the old ones.

"Conservatives have already used the storm for causes of their own, like suspending requirements that federal contractors have affirmative action plans and pay locally prevailing wages. And with federal costs for rebuilding the Gulf Coast estimated at up to $200 billion, Congressional Republican leaders are pushing for spending cuts, with programs like Medicaid and food stamps especially vulnerable . . .

"But many conservatives see logic, not irony, at work. If the storm exposed great poverty, they say, it also exposed the problems of the very policies that liberals have supported."

Paul Krugman wonders whether Bush will actually cough up the promised cash:

"I'm not sure why the news media haven't made more of the White House role in stalling a bipartisan bill that would have extended Medicaid coverage to all low-income hurricane victims-- some of whom, according to surveys, can't afford needed medicine. The White House has also insisted that disaster loans to local governments, many of which no longer have a tax base, be made with the cruel and unusual provision that these loans cannot be forgiven.

"Since the administration is already nickel-and-diming Katrina's victims, it's a good bet that it will do the same with reconstruction-- that is, if reconstruction ever gets started."

Bush, for his part, had dinner last night in the French Quarter.

On to the Supreme Court: So it turns out Miers does have a bit of a paper trail, as this Bloomberg piece makes clear:

"The Dallas law firm headed by U.S. Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers helped accounting firm Ernst & Young sell what came to be regarded as a sham tax shelter in 1999 by providing letters to shield customers from IRS penalties, a Senate investigation found."

Heck of a job.