How Many More Mistakes Can They Make?

The latest Bush administration misstep is the loss of funding for the most likely cities to have repeat terrorist attacks, New York and Washington, D.C. The administration seems to be misfiring on all cylinders. Bush's fellow Republicans such as Peter King (R-NY) and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg are especially upset with the funding loss. It is difficult to make sense out of cutting funding to landmark, people filled and already hit New York while increasing funding to Omaha, Nebraska. There there is at least one person who sees it differently. The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff called the funding loss "fair to New York."

Chertoff also came up with this gem to explain the disgruntlement, "When actual decisions get made it tends to rub people who came out on the short end the wrong way. We are always willing to listen to criticism." Chertoff's statement serve as a refresher course to two feral lessons the Bush administration has already given us. The first is the administration's policies and decisions do tend to rub most people the wrong way, as most of us do end up on the short end. The second lesson is the Bush administration is willing to listen, but doesn't do much other than that when criticized. Only on very rare occasions are they willing to make changes, such as with failed Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers. And this was painfully done by the administration when it was clear that the nomination would fail the Senate's confirmation process.

Now, with this latest misstep, at least one prominent member of the Republican leaning press is calling for the removal of Chertoff from Homeland Security with more likely to follow. When you're traveling uphill and misfiring on all cylinders there is only one place you can go. It will nevertheless be interesting to see how this plays out in the next week.

- Steve