Coyote Crunch

Hurricane Aftermath: We continue to be appalled by the attempts of politicians and partisan commentators to assign blame to the "other side," whatever that may be, for the slow response. It's obvious to the coyotes that local, state, and federal officials made mistakes--as well as some good decisions--and that there are some systemic problems that need to be identified and fixed. The coyotes don't know who is "most" at fault and think the effort to figure that out is more about election politics than anything else. In fact, we're prepared to say that any Democratic partisan who assignes the "primary" blame to President Bush or to FEMA and any Republican partisan who assigns "primary" blame to the New Orleans mayor and the Lousiana governor should have his or her tongue cut out. On this score, we think that more Republicans and self-styled conservatives have been willing to express frustration with the federal response, which suggests that either a) the federal response is more screwed up or b) the Republicans have more integrity than Democrats. Maybe both. Wile E..