2:30 P.M. - BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- As President Bush visits Louisiana, it's hard to hide the rift with Louisiana's governor over hurricane relief efforts. Both leaders have been talking to people in Baton Rouge today, but not always with each other. At the Bethany World Prayer Center, Bush and Kathleen Blanco seemed like estranged in-laws at a holiday gathering, keeping their distance as they walked around. According to Blanco's office, the governor wasn't informed of the timing of Bush's visit, nor was she immediately invited to meet him or travel with him.
snicker/
West Point and other military educational institutions cover alot of useful information, but being taught the basics is only the beginning.
For the teaching to find root, the student has to live in an environment where mistakes cost him the lives of people he cares about for an extended period of time.
At that point the training becomes symbiotic with the personality and only then does it reach maximum effectiveness.
A political career, along with most others, isn't very fertile ground for a personality that understands the nature of absolute equations.
Blanco's out of the loop.
Per the WP article from yesterday, she was offered the opportuity to come inside by requesting that Bush federalize the afflicted areas, but she refused.
The lines are drawn, the battle has commenced.
Bush holds the purse strings, and Blanco holds the media's sympathy.
Much of it will occur below our sightlines and we will have to infer that part of it.
But that the battle has been joined is evidenced by Honore's comments and tone.
Gloves are off.
The part of it that we actually see will get bloodier.
nor was she immediately invited to meet him or travel with him.
$$$$$
...because he does not have any reserve of energy left to be nice to a dangerous fool, and he does not speak falsehoods, so when he cannot any longer speak politely to someone, he does not put himself in their company. The person gets the message.