On a purely political note

I keep saying "Katrina changed things," and while those changes may be "under the radar" (i.e., no longer dominating cable news coverage or getting big newspaper headlines), the tectonic shift is still with us, the repercussions have not begun to die away:

``The president can do better and should do better,'' said Republican Representative Charles ``Chip'' Pickering of Mississippi. ``The people of Mississippi and Louisiana need to know the administration is still with them.''

The two states were the hardest hit by Katrina, which Bush said was the biggest natural disaster in the nation's history. Entire towns were wiped out, 80 percent of New Orleans was flooded and had to be evacuated and almost 1,000 people died. In the aftermath, Mississippi officials told a congressional panel yesterday, aid for rebuilding has been delayed, school districts are facing bankruptcy and thousands of people remain in temporary shelters.

While state and local officials say Congress shares much of the blame for lagging reconstruction aid, resentment may be building in the region toward Bush, who created an expectation that the government would focus its resources on recovery.

``Folks are starting to be cynical and thinking that the White House has counted the votes and decided that mad Mississippians and Louisianans can't do much damage politically,'' said Marty Wiseman, a professor of government at Mississippi State University in Starkville.

``The president needs to reconnect with southeast Louisiana and remember that there're Americans who are down here who need his attention and his help,'' said Joey DiFatta, the council chairman of St. Bernard Parish, east of New Orleans.

Bush may want to wander away from this region, but it is more vital than many of us recognize. Fishing, shrimping, and all the agricultural goods that flow through the New Orleans port, not to mention the pipelines which caused oil prices to spike when they were closed even briefly.

Lot of voters in Mississippi and Louisiana, too, and all the way over into Texas (don't forget Lake Charles and Beaumont are also recovering from Rita). I mentioned once before how representation changed dramatically in Louisiana after the Civil War. My daughter's history textbook had two maps of elections just a few years apart; the state shifted almost entirely from one party to the other, over issues as powerful and compelling as those created by Katrina and our national response, or lack of response, today.

There's no reason history won't repeat itself in 2006. And Bush is more and more of a lame duck as these things go on.

Which means, too, our politics is not all about money and power and convenience. There is clearly a moral question here, too, even as we "morally" condemn the homeless and blame the poor for their plight. But the outpouring of compassion for the victims of Katrina, while it no longer pulses as it did in August and September, is still present. We have seen the national reality of our politics, and we do not like it.

Change is coming. It may be entirely "under the radar," and it certainly won't be a "new advent," but "politics as usual" doesn't work anymore, and Karl Rove has yet to figure that out.