Wherever You Go, There You Are

And where will we hide
When it comes from inside...

Lyrics from a very old James Taylor song.

Mickey Kaus has been writing about federalism as a key to failed Hurricane Katrina relief, including tugs of war (or mutual attempts to evade responsibility) between Bush and Gov. Blanco:

P.P.S.: Lets be clear about this--today, it's not me blaming federalism. It's "administration, Pentagon and Justice Department officials." What the Bushies themselves are fingering as the cause of the Katrina debacle is precisely the machinery of 'states rights' that so entrances conservatives (and that was revived dramatically by the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist). Will Bush follow through on the current White House line of thinking and denounce hyperbolic assertions of state prerogatives (such as those embedded in a narrow interpretation of the unfortunate commerce clause)? Will he nominate someone to fill the vacant Supreme Court seat who rejects the Rehnquist view?

When things screw up, these days, we hold the president and the federal government responsible. It follows that the president and the federal government should have the power to stop things from screwing up...

Mickey! We could install a dictator and have exactly the same problem, namely us.

People are going to screw things up. Which way would you like to screw things up today? If Bush were King and had failed to send troops quickly--like that never happened with monarchs-- we'd have alternate-universe critiques pleading for another power center to pressure the palace guard. There was an obscure commentary called the Federalist writes baron Mickey von Kaus. The monarchists who eventually crowned George the First should have followed its advice and created separate seats of power instead of concentrating it in the hands of our current mad Lord. And I hate his new BMW! To hell with that crazy styling!

All systems of government are not created equal and I prefer this one. It works when you have the right people in place, it doesn't when you don't, and individuals are going to fail at individual times. That's true whether it's at Gallipoli, or the Charge of the Light Brigade, or in Neville Chamberlain's head, or Michael Brown's.  And yes, in the person of President Bush, if nothing else for not having staffed FEMA with the operational maniacs it needs.

P.S. No, I don't think Kaus is proposing a dictatorship. Very much.