Priorities?

Was Kanye West Right?:

Sometimes the best place to find out what the White House is doing is, well, anywhere but the White House.

Case in point: Nikki Davis Maute writes in the Hattiesburg (Miss.) American: 'Shortly after Hurricane Katrina roared through South Mississippi knocking out electricity and communication systems, the White House ordered power restored to a pipeline that sends fuel to the Northeast.

'That order - to restart two power substations in Collins that serve Colonial Pipeline Co. - delayed efforts by at least 24 hours to restore power to two rural hospitals and a number of water systems in the Pine Belt. . . .

'Dan Jordan, manager of Southern Pines Electric Power Association, said Vice President Dick Cheney's office called and left voice mails twice shortly after the storm struck, saying the Collins substations needed power restored immediately.'

Fascinating... BushCo, and most importantly Dick Cheney, who was otherwise invisible in the immediate aftermath of Katrina and continuing on until late Thursday when his staff finally found him mansion-hunting in the exclusive suburbs of Baltimore, were right on top of things that mattered... to them. Get those pipelines pumping!

Makes you wonder. If they were so on-top of the situation that they would leave two voice-mail messages to order a pipeline back in service within 24 hours (at the expense of restoring power to two hospitals, no less), how it is that they were ostensibly so clueless when it came to the fact that tens of thousands of people were literally starving and dying of dehydration right before our eyes on national TV?

Why has no one else but Froomkin picked this up?

It is certainly indicative of the administration's priorities, and may point to even deeper problems.

Do I think that the president doesn't care about black people? No.

I think he takes an equal-opportunity dim view of anyone who makes less than a million a week.

Worst. President. Ever.