In Brief: White House to Louisiana: You Don't Need No Stinkin' Levees:
The Rude Pundit's hitting the skies today, leaving Red State America behind once again. He'll have more to say about the forgotten Katrina landscape later this week. But for now, in case you were wondering if the White House could dick over Louisiana just a little bit more, you're in luck.

Seems that the White House is threatening to veto a water resources bill that was negotiated between Republicans and Democrats in both houses of Congress, that passed with overwhelming support in the House, and that included levee and coastal restoration projects to help prevent large-scale hurricane damage in south Louisiana, including an area directly affecting 120,000 people.

The White House has made noise about the potential wetland impact of the levee system and the cost of the bill. But let's be clear: the other reason the White House is gonna veto this fucker is because it's a model of the kind of bipartisanship it desperately wants the Congress to avoid. The bill itself shows that politicians can function, and the Bush administration can't have that. It totally fucks up the White House's narrative that only it can rise above the fray with solutions.

That's not to mention that the White House was left out of the loop on the negotiations. The threatened veto, which might not be overridden, makes the President seem like the fourth guy in a room where a menage a trois is occurring, pissed off that he's consigned to watching rather than filling an orifice. Of course, that's one kind of man, a selfish prick. Another more decent, fulfilled man might enjoy the sight of such carnal pleasure in motion and sit this one out.

Up, up, and away.