[Mb-civic] Maureen Dowd - Stormy Spins in a Vortex

[Mike Blaxill]

Stormy Spins in a Vortex
    By Maureen Dowd
    The New York Times

    Saturday 24 September 2005

    And still the pesky press was painting him as
a storm groupie, racing Rita to Texas just to
score a windswept backdrop to recapture his image
as protector.

    Stormy preened for the cameras at FEEBLE FEMA
headquarters in Washington yesterday. On CNN, a
bilious image of a hurricane spun next to his
head. You could imagine the little hurricane
trailing him through the rest of his presidency,
like the storm cloud with a lightning bolt that
always trailed Joe Btfsplk in "Li'l Abner."

    He said he was jetting to San Antonio to
check out "the prepositioned assets" and then
riding out the storm watching "the interface"
between the military and state and local
authorities at Northcom in Colorado.

    But David Gregory at NBC quizzed W. on what
good he could really do in Texas: "Might you get
in the way, Mr. President?"

    Stormy didn't like that. "One thing I won't
do is get in the way," he snipped.

    Mr. Gregory, part of a newly amped-up press
corps, followed up: "Isn't there a risk of you
and your entourage getting in the way?"

    Now Stormy let off a little high pressure.
"There will be no risk of me getting in the way,
I promise you," he said dismissively.

    The smart aleck reporters didn't understand
how crucial it was for the president to
intertwine, inter alia, with the interfacers. So
W. explained it again: "See, Northcom is the main
entity that interfaces - that uses federal
assets, federal troops, to interface with local
and state government. I want to watch that
relationship." 

click below for rest of article
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/092405G.shtml