Chicago Tribune | Bush let himself take blame for Katrina mess

Chicago Tribune | Bush let himself take blame for Katrina mess: "President George Bush insisted for days that it wasn't nice to play the blame game over Hurricane Katrina.

Then FEMA director Mike Brown was sent riding off into the sunset with his head in a saddlebag. So much for 'Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job.'

'I'm going to go home and walk my dog and hug my wife and maybe get a good Mexican meal and a stiff margarita and a full night's sleep,' Brown told reporters on his first official day as fall guy.

The president has been playing the blame game all along. He's played badly, although that may be turning. That may explain why he's taken so much pounding, and why New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, both Democrats, have all but been given a pass.

For one, Bush deserves it. He appeared aloof, inept and unaffected, bouncing off Air Force One after a vacation with that ridiculous puppy in his arms while the people of New Orleans were drowning. There are legitimate logistical failures for which he is responsible, including not having a quicker military response as the city devolved into chaos.

Part of it is political. The Democrats thwacked him with the race card again and again, and Iraq and oil. But there may be another reason, too: Katrina is payback time for a president who despises the media and is despised in return.

Consider what we've learned only recently about the roles of Nagin and Blanco in the fiasco."