BUSH'S WATERGATE TAPE GAP

Big story everyone's talking about on TV news: An AP video showing the president, Michael Chertoff and then-FEMA Director Michael Brown being briefed the day before Katrina struck on the possible dimensions of the disaster-to-come, including the possibility that the levees could be breached, with loss of life. This comes in contrast to an interview days after Katrina, where the president said, "Nobody could have anticipated" that the levees would not hold. [Note: "Brownie" says in the video that his gut tells him this is going to be a big one.]

On Hardball National Review's Kate O'Beirne explained, "The government failed" because government fails, that's what it does.

Tweety seemed most worried about Bush's unfavorables. He just couldn't BUH-LEEVE that people are finding the same lovable traits their fearless leader embodies, those same characteristics that caused a majority of them to re-elect him president in November 2004, no longer attractive. What could be the reason? he queried.

Kate: Blah, blah, yadda-yadda-yadda, Bush fatigue.

Consensus from the non-NRO types: How much more of a hit can Bush taken than 34%? But the tapes do raise questions of competence. Bush claimed there was no "situational awareness" about Katrina -- and re Iraq, where there does also seem to be a lack of "situational awareness" -- it makes you ask, does the president really know anything that's going on until long after? The tape is a political problem, though, tape and photographs are always a problem.

Tags: Bush, Katrina, tapes