Back to Washington

In response to the destruction caused Hurricane Katrina, Bush is cutting his vacation short and returning to DC "to help monitor federal efforts to assist victims" of the disaster.

For what it's worth, I think this is the right thing to do. Even though there is not much the President can do personally from Washington, continuing to nap on the ranch in the face of such extensive devastation and loss of life would look absolutely awful. It's good politics to go back to DC, but it's also something that is obviously owed to the victims.

Mary notes that Katrina also gives Bush a good excuse to get away from Cindy Sheehan, and I have to assume that was a factor in the decision to leave Crawford (or at least a bonus).

But while Katrina is certainly a reason for the President to get back to work, didn't the negotiations over the Iraqi constitution also justify ending the month-long vacation earlier? Instead of managing the growing political crisis from the White House, where whatever is left of American power in the Bush era could still be leveraged, W. literally phoned it in during a pro-war PR junket to Idaho. A nation hangs in the balance, as well as the remnants of the his post-election pledge to spread democracy, but hell, there are some cool bike trails at the resort, so what's the leader of the free world to do?

Sadly, not his job, but we've all gotten used to that by now, I think.