Back to Work

President Bush is cutting short his vacation to head back to Washington to deal with the aftereffects of Hurricane Katrina. I realize he's essentially required to do this for image purposes, but the stated rationale--that, as he put it, "we have a lot of work to do"--is questionable. If the president needs to be in Washington to personally oversee relief efforts, then his administration's got bigger problems to deal with than a hurricane. In fact, there's a fine line between showing leadership and getting in the way of those further down the chain of command. White House spokesman Scott McClellan says Bush will chair a meeting Wednesday of a task force on the disaster. Let's hope that isn't a group of people dragged away from real relief efforts to put on a show at the White House.