[Mb-civic] Floods Scour the Political Landscape, Too - Tina Brown - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Floods Scour the Political Landscape, Too

By Tina Brown
Thursday, September 8, 2005; Page C01

Even though it is so familiar in our imaginations, it is still a 
wonderful moment in the upcoming Discovery documentary "The Flight That 
Fought Back" when the doomed passengers on Flight 93 seize the food cart 
and race it down the aisle toward the cockpit like a battering ram, 
united in courage and rage. At the preview of the movie at the Bryant 
Park Hotel in Manhattan you could feel the exhalation of tension in the 
audience during the reenactment: the wish-fulfillment, the satisfaction 
at the virility of the gesture.

New York may have superficially recovered since 9/11, but the Bush 
victory in the election last year left a hangover of self-doubt that 
drained the city's mojo. Katrina's perfect meteorological and political 
storm has at least blown away that mood. New York's sullen sense of 
carrying around a deviant secret -- that President Bush is an empty 
flight suit -- has gone with the wind.

If 9/11 was Bush's Woodstock, Katrina is his Altamont -- the place where 
his ability to unite people behind a flurry of flag-waving came to look 
like the hollow sham it always was. John Edwards's mantra of Two 
Americas doesn't sound so corny now that Bush's soaring vision of 
democracy on the march has suddenly been laid as bare as an abandoned 
Superdome where the toilets are overflowing.

But for New Yorkers, the dimensions of the pain mean there is not much 
glee in saying "I told you so." Ever since 9/11 we've been endlessly 
stiffed on "homeland security." Millions for red Montana, nickels for 
blue New York.

We had to grit our teeth and host the cynical hijacking of 9/11 by the 
Republican convention last year, where even Rudy Giuliani franchised his 
(and our) authentic moment of heroism to the Bush reelection machine.

The twin towers are still a gaping hole in the ground fought over by 
greedy real estate agents, prima donna architects and culture warriors 
distractedly arbitrated by a Republican governor preoccupied with 
national political ambitions. The current plans for a third-rate office 
building on top of a bunker with a censored museum seems like a strange 
advertisement for freedom. But perhaps it suits the city's mood of 
lingering disappointment after 9/11's squandered goodwill. Osama bin 
Laden's outrage goes unavenged while we continue to suck wind in Baghdad.

But now, in Katrina's aftermath, there's something different in the air: 
the scent of insurrection. The needless torment of New Orleans has 
reignited the dormant passions of the election. E-mails are flying again 
between friends who've been out of touch for months, enclosing Web links 
to new polemics of disgust. The big donors with wallet fatigue after 
John Kerry's loss are ready to write checks again, big time, for any 
Democrat who shows courage.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/07/AR2005090702341.html?nav=hcmodule
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