[RightWhale]

NO will be in session as long as the Congress is in session. It will take two months to get NO relief bills through committees at least and they won't go for final signoff until the end of the session. Then it is campaign time. This one, involving monstrous FedGov action, will move everything else to the backpage. Already we see suggestions for other issues, but they don't have enough float to ride higher than NO. Unless another city-buster shows up in the meantime, this one is the big one.

It would be a plus for all involved to get over the blame-placing phase and onto the city rebuilding theme, but some are apparently not interesting in moving past the blame-placing phase at this time.

[inquest]

NO will be in session as long as the Congress is in session. It will take two months to get NO relief bills through committees at least and they won't go for final signoff until the end of the session. Then it is campaign time.

I could be wrong about this, but I have a hard time imagining that this is going to be the dominant news item for the public, even if it's talked about alot in the halls of Congress. Other news is still going to happen, and all the other concerns that have been raging before will continue to rage again. New Orleans simply will not be something that most voters outside of Louisiana are going to consider their top issue.

It would be a plus for all involved to get over the blame-placing phase and onto the city rebuilding theme

What would really be a plus would be for the federal government to let the state, city, private charity, investors, and regular citizens take over, instead of constantly trying to make everything a federal issue.