From the Albany Times-Union

..."When it comes to Katrina, he has a lot to be modest about.

To critics such as Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, however, the President's conciliatory attitude comes too late. Dean noted in a CNN interview that "the response to Katrina was effectively the end to the President's presidency in the sense that people all of a sudden saw the small man behind the (Wizard of Oz) curtain. ... We suddenly saw an American president just descend into failure and I don't think he's ever recovered from that."

Dean, of course, is not a neutral observer. But plenty of other observers agree that the Bush administration badly bungled Katrina from the start and the slow recovery is still being mishandled.

Thousands of displaced families are waiting for FEMA trailers.

An estimated 11 percent of the $19 billion spent by FEMA has been lost to waste, fraud and abuse, according to testimony at a congressional hearing. The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general is investigating.

Congress didn't approve needed housing money for homeowners in Louisiana until June, and the money has not yet reached those homeowners.

Less than half the $110 billion in federal money that Bush boasted earlier this month as earmarked for relief efforts -- only $44 billion -- has actually been spent, according to the government's Katrina recovery czar, Donald Powell.

Katrina killed more than 1,500 residents along the Gulf Coast; scores remain missing. A year after the storm hit, the levees are still not reassuringly reinforced. And the city is still without a viable reconstruction plan. ..."


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