Re: The Bush family, they just don't get it.
Just for the record, I do think that the head of FEMA is an unqualifed idiot. However the actual FEMA crisis mangers are the ones calling the shots, and they are exceptionally talented. As is the case in virtually every government, the head of the organization is offten a politico, whose role is to advocate for the agency, but whose role in day to day management is very little.
The levees were built over decades, including Bill Clinton. Bushs' funding of the Corps of Engineers was 15% more in real dollars than the average expenditure under Clinton EXCEPT for Clintons' last year. In Clintons' last year, he pushed a ton of pork projects through, so that when people say "Bush cut the budget", it is only compared to the last abnormally high Clinton year. And, by the way, the projects that were "cut" by Bush to actually do work on the levees, did not involve the actual levees that broke!
The partisan wails here are a bit misplaced given the facts.