Who is proud to be a Republican today?

Amidst continuing criticism of the slow federal response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster NBC stiffled an unscripted criticism of George Bush, which accused him of ignoring blacks. Rapper Kanye West also accused the media of treating blacks differently from whites. "If you see a black family, it says they're looting. See a white family, it says they're looking for food," he said.

The show was live on the east coast, and so NBC officials were unable to censor the comments until it was reaired on the west coast. And NBC has taken great pains to distance itself from West's comments. ""It would be most unfortunate," it said in a prepared statement, "if the efforts of the artists who participated tonight and the generosity of millions of Americans who are helping those in need are overshadowed by one person's opinion." NBC must be proud.

One of the marks of a man who has exceeded his capacity to lead is that he is slow to react. W did the same thing on 9/11, sitting in a classroom of children for nearly half an hour after being told of the attack. But even if he never had a particular thought about the plight of the inner city blacks in New Orleans (I frankly think he never did) those around him should have known better, and they let the disaster spread without taking immediate action.

We are now full circle. The political party that came into being championing the rights of blacks has demonstrated, now that it is in power, that it couldn't care less about them.