Blood in the water

Mona Charen wrote in Townhall The only ray of sunshine in the days following 9/11 was the magnificent unity displayed by Americans. Though the attack was brutal and numbing, our mutual support offered comfort. This time, the opposite is true of the political class (though ordinary people have been magnificent -- more on that in a minute). The long knives were unsheathed in record time. At the daily White House press briefings, Scott McClellan is barraged by reporters almost tipsy with that "blood in the water" intoxication they get when a Republican president is perceived to be in political difficulty.

If you dont know what to do, attack.

Never an edifying sight, it is particularly galling to witness now, when there is literal blood in the water of New Orleans.... There is another way to approach such a catastrophe -- and that is the way the rest of America has chosen. Every business, religious group, neighborhood association and Internet connection with which I am in touch is raising money for the victims of Katrina. The funds collected have already topped $500,000,000. Thousands of Americans are opening their homes as well as their wallets to those dispossessed by the floods. Schools in neighboring Texas, but also in states as far away as Massachusetts, D.C., and many others, are setting extra places for the children whose schools and homes have been destroyed.... That is how most of America is handling this catastrophe. The opportunists and professional partisans should observe and be humbled.

I have listed my house on websites as willing to host displaced people. What have you done?