INDEPENDENT BIPARTISAN KATRINA COMMISSION DENIED BY PARTY LINES

Mike at Florida News noted today that U.S. Senator Mel Martinez voted Wednesday against a proposal To establish a congressional commission to examine the Federal, State, and local response to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Region of the United States especially in the States of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and other areas impacted in the aftermath and make immediate corrective measures to improve such responses in the future.

This would have been an independent, bipartisan commission similar to the panel which investigated the terrorist attacks on America September 11, 2001, and was generally given high marks for it's work.

Sadly, the vote was strictly along party lines, with every Republican voting against the measure and the Democrats and Independent supporting it. Even the two senators from Mississippi, one of the hardest hit states, voted against the commission...including Trent Lott, whose own family home in Pascagoula was lost to the storm.

Apparantly, the GOP members are afraid that such an independent committee would bring out the real truth as to how badly the federal bureaucracy bungled the relief support in the hours and days immediately following the hurricane. I've said here before that there's plenty of blame to go around to state, local, and federal officials --- and that includes both Democrats and Republicans --- but one can take from the result of the vote that the Republican members are working to protect Dubya's "legacy"...one needs to only look at the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll to see that his "legacy" is almost damaged beyond repair.

BTW: NBC News' White House Correspondent Kelly O'Donnell previews President Bush's address to the nation this evening:

Senior officials say the President's remarks are now expected to run about 20 minutes, revised down from the earlier guidance of 30 minutes.
The statue of Andrew Jackson and St. Louis Cathedral will be the President's backdrop in New Orleans' Jackson Square, the French Quarter.

The initiatives Mr. Bush will discuss include education, job training and housing. The president will also say that many jobs generated by the reconstruction should go to Katrina evacuees.

Officials also note Mr. Bush will talk about incentives for small businesses and specifically, businesses owned by minorities. Aides say the president will also speak about the "long history of injustice that led to poverty and inequality" in the region. He will indicate that it will "not be overcome instantly" and stress the "importance of acting in a bold way."

Finally, there are no plans to change the administration's stand on tax cuts. One official told me raising taxes to pay for Katrina recovery "would particularly hit people hurt by the hurricane."

Sounds like much more style than substance.