Congress discovers problems in Gulf Coast

The Associated Press had a story yesterday about how many Congress-folk had actually been to the Gulf Coast to witness the wreckage and progress of rebuilding. Warning: for anyone who cares about what's happening down there, it will bring your blood to slow boil:

With Congress in recess, a steady procession of federal lawmakers has toured the Gulf Coast over the last two weeks.

But the recent rash of visits isn't good enough for members of the Mississippi and Louisiana delegations, who say their colleagues can't fathom the scope of the devastation unless they see it for themselves.

Thirty senators have visited New Orleans since the storm, according to a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La. A tally this week by The Times-Picayune of New Orleans found that 44 of 435 House members had been to the city.

That's a far cry from the number that visited New York after the Sept. 11 attacks, said U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-La.

"When 9/11 happened, you had to beat members of Congress off with a stick from going to New York City," Melancon said. "What's the difference (with New Orleans? It's a major city we need to save."

Pardon my Cajun French, but maybe if a few more of our esteemed leaders had gotten off their asses to see the devastation -- and pitiful pace of recovery -- for themselves, they wouldn't have screwed around until late December -- three and a half months -- before passing a relief package.

And when they finally got around to coughing up some money, maybe it wouldn't have been one in which over half of the money was just re-shuffled appropriations, of which $2 billion will go towards rebuilding Naval ships instead of helping survivors.

Just a theory.