Blame game wreaks havoc in D.C.

WASHINGTON — Hurricane Katrina is ripping through the nation's capital.

But instead of death and destruction, Katrina is a political firestorm that has tongues wagging, fingers pointing and political careers hanging in the balance, none more than that of President Bush, whose administration has been shredded by the winds of criticism over the government's sluggish response to the catastrophe in the Gulf Coast.

"The political spin in Washington is revolting, just revolting," says Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah. "It's a callous political game."

It's called the "blame game," and every critic of the Bush administration, those with beefs over issues as disparate as domestic budget cuts and opposition to America's war in Iraq, are using the hurricane to further their own agendas, some in language unfit for a family newspaper.

Politics being what they are, Republican members of the Utah delegation are standing firmly with the president, whose national approval ratings were the lowest of his presidency before the hurricane hit and are still falling in the hurricane's aftermath.

But even the president's supporters readily admit things could have been managed better.

"Given the huge nature (of the disaster), it is inevitable there would be areas of failure," said Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah. "There are a lot of areas we can look and say could have been done better. But if we look at the overall dimensions of the thing, we have to cut some people some slack."

But that isn't likely to happen in a politically charged environment where affixing blame is a time-honored tradition.

And there appears to be plenty of blame to go around. Much of it is being leveled at the slow response of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA,) once the crown jewel of the federal bureaucracy but lately the poster child for alleged bungling.

Almost two weeks after the hurricane hit, news networks run daily stories about FEMA's latest incompetence. There are stories like disaster relief personnel in Charleston, S.C., scrambling to prepare for the arrival of more than 200 refugees, only to find the plane had been sent to Charleston, W.Va.