Gergen is Right About Oil in Gulf–Updated just for DD

(2PM – promoted by Nightprowlkitty)

Cross posted and DKOS.

Since this happened I’ve been commenting in various places that there seem to be no “there” there when it comes to this Administration. It has, as a crisis team, performed remarkably poorly. The Administrations response to this crisis in the Gulf of Mexico is stunning in its punyness as David Gergen points out in a CNN story.

Although this disaster is not an existential threat, it could be argued that if the U.S. government had fought World War II in the same way it has fought the oil spill, we might well be speaking German now.

I’m not a Gergen fan. He is, however and intelligent and engaged insider in Washington whose opinions reflect his milieu and counts for something.

Gergen gives, essentially, some suggestions.

Faced with a growing danger to our well-being, a WWII-type government would at minimum have:

• Brought in the CEOs of all the major oil companies and charged them with the duty of an all-hands collaborative effort to stop the spill and help ward off the damage.
• Brought in the best minds in the country, from universities and technology, for emergency efforts to find solutions.
• Moved quickly to mobilize the National Guard and other military forces, if necessary, ensuring that they received the resources needed to protect our beaches.
• Made a clear call to citizen volunteers to help where necessary.
• Given Cabinet officers an ultimatum: Get this under control in the next 30 days, or else.

This was, to me, obvious after the first week. What is surprising to me is that I saw very little of this in the MSM. In fact the MSM basically but this horror of an event on the back-burner of its hierarchy of news. Any intelligent observer of the American political scene knows that placement of the news is usually politically motivated by the MSM. If powerful political forces say to downplay the story the MSM, in unison, will downplay it. If you are shocked then I suggest you hang out a bit in Washington like I have for three decades (at DD this last sentence is unnecessary).

Worse, on this site (DKOS)when criticizing the Obama administration on its handling of the crisis I and others have elicited a little storms of indignation.

What I’d like to know is what is wrong with Gergen’s approach? Not in his particulars but in the general approach. This is not a little spill on Alaska ice–harmful and bad but not the end of the world. This spill is, in a metaphorical sense, a kind of end of the world. I say this because someone I know who has spent a lifetime caring for and advocating for animals in a sometimes heroic way said to me in grief “it’s the end of the world.” What she meant by this I’m not sure but it came out of a heart that bleeds for all living things in a way mine doesn’t. I’m trying to say to all you who might read this: do you fucking realize how fucking important this is? Do you realize what this tells us about the attitude of this country and this site when this mega, mega, event happens and people here are worried about me and others criticizing Obama?

Maybe this thing will finally, after five long weeks, be capped. Maybe, maybe, maybe. But the concern here at DKOS ought to be for what this says about Democrats and this administration. Whether or not the administration has done the right thing or not this is of the utmost importance and should be on the front burner, not because I said so, but because our oceans are very fragile right now. If you don’t give a fuck about that then how about this being the crown in the jewel of this administration’s show of insensitivity to anything left of center Democrats might be concerned about–we all know the long litany–war, war, war, torture, torture, bailout of Wall Street, lack of interest in prosecuting massive fraud, lukewarm support of barely breathing financial reform efforts, bogus HCR bill (sorry the bill is slightly better than worthless) to name just a few things.

I may have a bad attitude but I can guarantee you that Obama is now looking bad not just to me but to important members of the Washington establishment who are in a position to make things very difficult for Obama. I would remind you that the last President who pissed off that establishment was Jimmy Carter–though I’m sure no one will ever be able to achieve the degree of pure hatred he elicited.

**Update: Looks like what I thought was a fairly harmless diary has turned into a real donnybrook over at GOS. My diary is off the rec list and a spin off is spinning along nicely here. From just touching on it you can see it is hate-filled and venomous. Makes me want to join the Tea Party folks. I think they might rough me up a little then sit with me and get drunk. These guys would be pulling my fingernails off as they inject mysterious drugs into my system. Wow is all I can say–it takes so little to fire them up. It’s actually comical.