Barbour praised Bush too quickly

[struggle4progress]

He's had to rethink the response of federal government to Katrina

By Joe Atkins
Special to The Clarion-Ledger

OXFORD — <snip>

"Mr. President, the federal government has been great," Barbour said that day. <snip>

As in Iraq, Bush's business friends have profited handsomely in the Gulf Coast tragedy, FEMA awarded huge, no-bid contracts to politically connected firms like the Shaw Group and Halliburton. Joe Allbaugh, Bush's former campaign manager and a former FEMA director, was a lobbyist for both firms. <snip>

Now the Bechtel trailers are being criticized for leaking sewer lines and poor water pressure and air conditioning. <snip>

The bankruptcy of the Bush presidency on a wide range of fronts — Iraq, Gulf Coast recovery, political intrigue in the leaking of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame's name to the press — is becoming clear, even to some of his stalwart supporters. <snip>

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051106/OPINION/511060373/1200

[Faygo Kid]

1. Barbour will kiss Bush butt. Or, kick it. Haley will know in 2008.

Haley Barbour is now looking out for himself politically, like Huey Long, or George Wallace. Prediction? He will position himself as a Populist in Mississippi, support the war, but throw Shrub over on his economics. And, his hair will never be out of place. That's my prediction.

[xchrom]

2. the corruption that keeps on corrupting.

like barbour didn't know exactly how this was going to go.

mississipians have a long history of plundering their own state -- and under the guise of god, guns, gays, and it's my tax money and i want to spend it at wall mart -- the republicans have an inexhaustible mine of claptrap to beat the ignorant and emotional voter to death with.

[Contrary1]

3. Ouch.

"...As Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma have proven, real "homeland security" was less important to Bush than his bloody war on Iraq, launched on the false claim that the country possessed weapons of mass destruction.

As in Iraq, Bush's business friends have profited handsomely in the Gulf Coast tragedy, FEMA awarded huge, no-bid contracts to politically connected firms like the Shaw Group and Halliburton. Joe Allbaugh, Bush's former campaign manager and a former FEMA director, was a lobbyist for both firms.Bush's first instincts can be seen in his decision to lift the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act requirement that federal contractors pay "prevailing wages" in reconstruction efforts.

<snip>

A "prevailing wage" in Mississippi is already significantly less than the national average, but lifting Davis-Bacon opened the door to the dirt-cheap wages contractors like to pay undocumented workers..."