[RED VS BLUE DEBATE COLUMN - Two perspectives on Katrina response]

Dan Morrow:
North Carolina, our hurricane-prone neighbor to the south, exhorts its citizens and their leaders "to be, rather than to seem." Esse Quam Videri is the Latin motto.

The Bush administration's response to Katrina failed to either BE effective or SEEM effective . . . and, sadly, Bush always seems more concerned about how his people "look" than how well they "do."

Etched into memory forever are pictures of the destruction and suffering along the Gulf Coast, juxtaposed to images of Bush, vacationing during the gathering storm; pitching his ill-fated social security reforms while men, women and children, most of them black and poor, waded to half-safety or drowned; returning late to Washington; then rushing south for photo-ops and ill-considered public remarks; praising the failed and now resigned-but-unchastised FEMA chief, Michael Brown for doing a "heck of a job"; then complaining that his critics, both Republican and Democrat, were "playing the blame game" as the Big Easy drowned in its own sewage.

"Now is not the time to point fingers," whined George and his minions . . . those wonderful people who brought you Baghdad.

George's father should have told him about senior officers sacked on the beachheads in Africa, Normandy and the Pacific during WWII . . . sacked immediately, and sacked on the spot . . . because keeping them in place cost lives.

The younger Bush should have done the same. Sadly, one suspects that if such a thought ever occurred to him, it would have been rejected. It wouldn't look good. Better to hand out Medals of Freedom, no?

Katrina has been called one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history. The rescue pictures make the Gulf Coast and the rescue effort look like a third world country, certainly not that of the most powerful and richest country on the planet.

What went wrong? In a word, politics. From the politicians who failed to fix the levees that we all knew were a disaster waiting to happen since 1969 . . . to the politicians who allowed the region's Barrier Islands to deteriorate so they would not impede the delivery of the oil and gas to the Louisiana ports.

From the politicians who allowed a city to be endlessly built up and out on swamps and wetlands below sea level . . . to the politicians who could not decide when to turn over the disaster recovery effort to the National Guard . . . to the politicians who, at the first sign of trouble, pointed the finger of blame at other politicians.

In a time of crisis and disaster there is no time to blame others. Just time to work, lead, or get out of the way. FEMA, the Governor of Louisiana, the Mayor of New Orleans, and the President could all have done a better job. But now is the time to help the people whose lives were destroyed and fix the problems that can be fixed and pray for as few lives lost as possible.

Mark Tate:
[Perspective defending Bush administration response]