I Don't Think Anyone Could Have Anticipated Incompetence at This Level

Remember back in 2001, after the Bushies and the Supreme Court had effectively stolen the election, there were many pundits saying, "Ah, now the adults are coming back," implying that the youthful Clinton administration couldn't handle the basics of governing. Five years later, and it's clear that the BushCo Dumpling Gang is in serious need of adult education. Remember this nugget from a few days after Hurricane Katrina (lifted from a Dan Froomkin column in the WaPo back last September):

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. They did anticipate a serious storm. But these levees got breached. And as a result, much of New Orleans is flooded. And now we are having to deal with it and will."

Well, it turns out some folks anticipated this, and President Bush was in on the discussion. The Associated Press today released a damning video of FEMA head Michael Brown providing a video briefing that included President Bush and Homeland Security chief Michael Chertof and that covered just how catastrophic this hurricane was expected to be:

In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned
President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives at risk in New Orleans' Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential video footage.

Bush didn't ask a single question during the final briefing before Katrina struck on Aug. 29, but he assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: "We are fully prepared."
[...]
Linked by secure video, Bush's confidence on Aug. 28 starkly contrasts with the dire warnings his disaster chief and a cacophony of federal, state and local officials provided during the four days before the storm.

A top hurricane expert voiced "grave concerns" about the levees and then-
Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown told the president and
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that he feared there weren't enough disaster teams to help evacuees at the Superdome.
[...]
A relaxed Chertoff, sporting a polo shirt, weighed in from Washington at Homeland Security's operations center. He would later fly to Atlanta, outside of Katrina's reach, for a bird flu event.

And here's the money shot, at least in regards to President Bush's "anticipation" quote:

The National Hurricane Center's Mayfield told the final briefing before Katrina struck that storm models predicted minimal flooding inside New Orleans during the hurricane but he expressed concerns that counterclockwise winds and storm surges afterward could cause the levees at Lake Pontchartrain to be overrun.

"I don't think any model can tell you with any confidence right now whether the levees will be topped or not but that is obviously a very, very grave concern," Mayfield told the briefing.

Let's remind ourselves what the President was doing after this briefing and while New Orleans washed away, courtesy of Crashing the Gate by Jerome Armstrong (of the MyDD blog) and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga (aka, Kos of Daily Kos):

Meanwhile, Bush spent his time vacationing, eating birthday cake with John McCain in Arizona on August 29, playing guitar with country star Mark Willis in San Diego the next day, and giving speeches about Iraq, World War II, and the dismantling of Social Security. The man who had rushed with a few hours notice to D.C in the dead of the night to sign the Terri Schiavo bill had to be dragged from his vacation to D.C three days after Katrina hit. While the Gulf Coast was a helicopter ride away from his Crawford hideout, Bush decided to "survey" the damage from a mile up from Air Force One.

So, I'm not expecting Super President to come swooping out of the sky to fix bureaucracy in a single bound. Instead, we get just what we paid (voted) for--a CEO President who's more interested in riding his mountain bike and clearing brush than personally dealing with a crisis.

The BushCo Dumpling Gang keeps on riding...