The Democrats -- and their minions in the Old Media -- are spinning furiously and in their standard fashion. The leftists are screaming "racism" and making comparisons to holocausts and slave ships hoping to blind through hatred for clear sight again shows the Democrats to be inept, corrupt and often downright evil.

The idea that those left behind were not evacuated was because of some innate racism on the part of the President is a vulgar lie -- one that any decent person should vocally renounce. Unfortunately there are very few people in the Democrat Party who are decent these days so even the pseudo-religious Joe Lieberman has no problem abiding his party's bearing of false witness.

So let's be clear, here. The President was in no way responsible either for the failed evacuation plans, the Mayor's inability or lack of desire to inspire compliance or the folks who chose for whatever reason not to leave the city as the hurricane approached.

Nor was the President responsible in the slightest for the dismal conditions at the Louisiana Superdome or the convention center as these were obviously under the purview of the local government headed by the Mayor.

Thus the overwhelming majority of the deaths and the suffering in New Orleans and its surrounding areas falls on Mayor Ray Nagin. Clearly had the people been evacuated as per the plan, we'd be talking about property damage and not human suffering.

And while Democrats try to spin stories about how the "slow response" of the Federal government prolonged the misery of those whose mayor failed to evacuate them and then failed to provide even the basics for their sustenance the truth is that the Federal government not only responded rapidly but did so in unprecedented fashion.

To my understanding President Bush declared Hurricane Katrina a "national emergency" even prior to its hitting land -- something that had never before been done -- in order to have the necessary forces and equipment in place the instant they were needed. And, contrary to the Democrats' lie that the troops weren't available because they were in Iraq, the necessary troops were on standby just waiting for the word to go.

But the President could not give that word for, the President cannot order Federal troops into a state without the written request of the Governor. This is designed to protect the states from a federal takeover and had Bush sent the troops in without the written request from Governor Blanko he would have committed an impeachable offense -- one of the most egregious in our history.

Thus the deaths, the suffering and the misery that we associate with hurricane Katrina were one hundred percent the fault of the Democrat Mayor of New Orleans and the Democrat Governor of Louisiana.

In fact, the President's policies were unprecedentedly strong, good and right and note should be made that almost to the second that the Governor belatedly signed the papers, the tragedy began to abate. In cool, efficient style the Feds put down the criminal element, conducted rooftop rescues by the thousands, quickly restored water and power to a good many neighborhoods and whereas there had been talk of tens of thousands of dead (according to no less an "expert" than Mayor Nagin) the swift and good work of the Feds sees that figure now dropped to somewhere near one or two thousand. Whereas before the Feds were allowed in the conventional wisdom was that New Orleans was gone forever today the goal is to have the French Quarter up and running within a mere 90 days.

Were mistakes made by the Feds? Of course. In what massive operation such as the retaking of a city from thugs and bandits, the resettling of thousands and thousands of refugees and the battling of nature's fury are there not SNAFUs and bureaucratic bumblings? But the notion that the cause of suffering was in any way the President's policies or the National Guard's incompetence or, most vile of all lies, the result of racism is simply another Democrat attempt to slander America's heroes (from our soldiers at Gitmo to the victims of 9/11 whom they call "little Eichmanns") and use the suffering of others for their own personal, political and financial gain.