Hurricane Alberto

It is impossible to learn from your mistakes when you cannot recognize that you make any. Hence we have a President eager to follow exactly the same pattern he did in the Katrina crisis, sticking by his inept, corrupt cronies even as they drag down his presidency. If the stubborn non-response to Katrina contributed significantly to pushing Bush's support down into the mid-30s, where it has been stuck for most of his second term, how low will this identical performance bring him?

"I can tell you that the president has confidence in [Gonzales]," said Deputy White House press secretary Dana Perino. President Bush "believes the attorney general can overcome the challenges that are before him," she said.

Perino said the White House is not interviewing prospective candidates to replace Gonzales and said Bush is satisfied with his and the department's efforts so far to be responsive to Congress.

Just swap out the names Brown and Chertoff and it's like the fall of 2005 all over again. If the last six years of experience hadn't taught me otherwise, I would be stunned.

The other possibility, of course, is that Bush has no other choice because Alberto is the crumbling levee between him and the criminal prosecution flood, and he fears that when Abu Gonzales goes, he'll be washed away.