Katrina Blame: Once More

On Friday we said that the last word on Katrina blame had been spoken. Now it's Monday, and in a fine tradition, we recognize a resurrection of sorts, that is, one more last word.

It comes from Mark Steyn, of course. Who else can add to the last word? His Telegraph column has such bon mots as:

• "Go ahead, punk, make my Earl Grey."
• "But come on, a guy doesn't have to be great to be better than Nancy Pelosi, the armchair general of armchair generalities."
• "Charges of Republican 'racism' rang particularly hollow in the context of New Orleans, where sodden blacks might be better advised to ponder what they have to show for being a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party for four decades."

Steyn argues that the negative political consequences of Katrina for Bush and the Republicans will be nil. After all, the opposition party offers nothing but tears and whining. Would Americans rather live in George W. Bush's America or Ray Nagin's New Orleans?

SWNID, who always complains that the Dems' intellectual bankruptcy is turning our federal republic into a one-party state, offers two points in addition.

First, voters have short memories. If they didn't, the 2004 Presidential election would have been decided by an even greater margin for Bush.

Second, Katrina washed Louisiana into the New South, which is overwhelmingly Republican. Its New Orleans concentration of government-dependent poor is unlikely to be recreated in rebuilding. And so the Democrats' base in Louisiana is about gone. Blanco and Landrieu look set to follow Donna Shalala into higher education administration after the next round of elections.