The "Red Queen" Inquiry?

According to this piece in The Guardian, President Bush intends to conduct his own investigation into what went wrong in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

This is an excellent plan -- especially since the Senate Homeland Security Committee is planning to conduct hearings, and there's reason for something less than total confidence. Its chairman, moderate Susan Collins (R-ME), seems already to have reached a conclusion: She has characterized the governmental response as "woefully inadequate." The whole undertaking sounds vaguely reminiscent of the famous cry of the Red Queen in "Alice in Wonderland":

"Verdict first -- trial later. Off with their heads!"

This is a time, more than ever, for Republicans to show a little common sense. Last week, Republicans from Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri (#3 Republican in the House) to Newt Gingrich to Senator Susan Collins (as noted above) to Joe Scarborough rushed to empathize with the victims and then criticize the federal response.

It's a natural reaction from those who have held (and/or hope again to hold) public office. The reflex is to seek to curry favor by demonstrating outrage and solidarity with the victimized, while simultaneously distancing oneself from those in one's own party who are under fire.

The problem is that by engaging their mouths before the facts are fully on the table, these Republican apple-polishers ("demagogues" would, perhaps, be too strong a word) help the Democrats create a narrative that isn't true (or, at the very least, hasn't been proven) -- i.e., that the federal government "failed."

No one wants to whitewash real problems and errors that occurred. But the Republican base will be watching carefully to see who plays to the crowd and who actually tries to conduct a rational, thorough but fair inquiry.

Here's an idea for the Republicans: They need to call in some of their finest who have some experience with disasters on the state and local level. Let Rudy Giuliani explain the role and obligations of a mayor during a crisis. Let my former boss, Senator Kit Bond (a former two-term governor of another state that's prone to flooding -- Missouri) explain a governor's responsibilities.

Then, along with all the finger-pointing and vituperation, we might all incidentally learn a little about disaster preparedness, coolness in crisis and the roles of state and local government in a disaster -- from very articulate and intelligent Republican leaders.