Finding Out What Went Right and What Went Wrong

It's been reported by pretty much everyone everywhere that the Prez said he took responsibility for the federal government's response to Katrina. It was a partial response to a question about how prepared the nation is for another disaster or terrorist attack, and it was as close to an answer to that question as he was going to give. If you get a chance to see a tape of the answer, it's well worth watching. Bush danced around the more chilling implications and only gave what ground he did because he apparently couldn't figure out a way to dodge responsibility altogether:

Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government. And to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility. I want to know what went right and what went wrong. I want to know how to better cooperate with state and local government, to be able to answer that very question that you asked: Are we capable of dealing with a severe attack or another severe storm. And that's a very important question. And it's in our national interest that we find out exactly what went on and--so that we can better respond.

The President's point, as far as it went, is correct. We have to know what really happened so we can know how to correct the errors and improve the response for next time (and remember, as Dick Cheney has made clear, it's when and not if).

Here's another story that's on point:

Senate Republicans on Wednesday scuttled an attempt by Sen. Hillary Clinton to establish an independent, bipartisan panel patterned after the 9/11 Commission to investigate what went wrong with federal, state and local governments' response to Hurricane Katrina.

The New York Democrat's bid to establish the panel--which would have also made recommendations on how to improve the government's disaster response apparatus--failed to win the two-thirds majority needed to overcome procedural hurdles. Clinton got only 44 votes, all from Democrats and independent Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont. Fifty-four Republicans all voted no.

Just as a reminder, there are only fifty-five Republicans in the Senate. One Republican senator, David Vitter, didn't take part in the vote at all. He represents Louisiana. Mississippi's two senators, Trent Lott and Thad Cochran, are both Republican and thus voted against investigating what went wrong and making recommendations to improve the government's response next time.

It's a party-line vote. The Senate Homeland Security Committee has already started its own investigation in which the Republican majority can control the findings to reveal whatever they want, but it won't have the credibility of the independent investigation they defeated today. What are Republicans afraid of? What are they trying to hide?