Katrina: US awaits missing Democrat leadership

cbs.ca: Some Americans are beginning to wonder if the missing after hurricane Katrina might include the biggest names in their party.

Democrat heavy-hitters have been about as visible as Vice-President Dick Cheney over the past week. There's been little word from Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Joseph Biden or Al Gore, to name just a few of the party's biggest names.

Bill Clinton, the party's most beloved and eloquent figure, has been enlisted by President George W. Bush to help in the aftermath - an appointment that has served to silence any criticism from him. The attacks by his wife, Hillary, rumoured to be planning a run for the presidency in 2008, have lacked the emotional punch that seems there for the taking for the Democrats.

That's led exasperated Americans to take to cyberspace and the Democratic party's official website - www.democrats.org - to bemoan the lack of steady, hard-hitting attacks from the Democrats during what are some of the Bush administration's darkest days. There's a torrent of such criticisms posted on the website's message board.

"If the mainstream media can call out the Republicans on their bullshit, why can't Democratic leaders? Let's quit acting like whipped dogs, afraid to lose moderate middle-America, grow a spine, and call Bush and his weenies what they are: incompetent buffoons," says a posting signed crimedog1.

Adds another message signed starwhell: "The American people are outraged, Democratic leaders. Don't be as slow to respond to our anger as the president was as slow to respond to the hurricane victims. We want answers. We want accountability. We want solutions. We want LEADERSHIP!" Read more