The Long Slog after Katrina. also commentary on the candidates plans.

[illinoisprogressive]

In the initial months after the hurricane, national Democrats roused themselves to complain when Bush sought to exempt post-hurricane reconstruction projects from the Davis-Bacon Act, a prevailing-wage law sacred to labor unions -- but failed to press for quick help for owners and residents of tens of thousands of ruined homes. When Bush effectively killed a bill to do just that, congressional Democrats barely made a peep.


Fortunately for New Orleans, leading Democratic presidential candidates are waking up to the continuing resonance of the Katrina disaster. John Edwards launched his campaign there. He, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama are among those touting their own plans for Gulf Coast recovery. Obama's in particular is praiseworthy: It covers everything from levee reconstruction to crimefighting to restoration of coastal wetlands, and takes a nuts-and-bolts approach devoid of cheap political gestures.

While some GOP candidates have visited New Orleans, the Republicans, as a group, have so far been much less specific about what they would do to speed the region's recovery. They would be wise to say more -- if only to reassure voters that, in a domestic crisis that demands leadership, they, unlike Bush, will not fall down on the job.

Homeowners on the verge of drowning in their attics; aimless flood victims wandering the elevated expressways; senior citizens expiring for lack of medical attention; the murk of floodwater; the furnace-like heat -- sadly, the cinematic horror of those early days after the storm does not mean that a Hollywood-style happy ending will necessarily follow. It would be lovely if, in the vast areas of Louisiana and Mississippi ravaged by Katrina, everyone could rally together and fix everything just right. But it is hardly surprising when the survivors of a catatastrophe merely scrape along afterward.


http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/08/29/the_long_slog_after_katrina/?page=2