The Republicans' Perfect Storm?

If the Bush Years were plotted on a fever chart, the key turning point triggering the descent to the Great Abyss of Unpopularity was Hurricane Katrina.

While the war in Iraq remained pretty much an abstraction, albeit an increasingly unpleasant one, when the Category 5 storm made landfall three year ago today, people were incredulous, incensed and finally angered that the White House's response was an indifference that put the final nail in the coffin of compassionate conservatism.

As a great believer in karma, it is difficult for me to not notice that the primary projected track of Tropical Storm Gustav is virtually identical to Katrina's. It is probable that Gustav will regain hurricane strength as it enters warmer Gulf of Mexico waters and possible that it will make landfall on Monday as the Republican National Convention opens.

I hope that I am wrong, and with Gustav still relatively far out, the tracking error can be upwards of 300 miles.

Bush diehards have not suffered in the least for their leader's dereliction and let's remember that Focus on the Family, that proudly Republican organization, has prayed to God that he rain on Barack Obama's acceptance speech tonight.

As it is, the four-day circle jerk in St. Paul will be an exercise in unreality, while the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast have had way too much of it.