Summertime in Donkeyville

"Summertime,
And the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin'
And the cotton is high"

George Gershwin probably wasn’t thinking about hurricanes or politics when he wrote “Summertime” in 1935. But Democrats ought to be humming that particular standard’s tune all the way through hurricane season.

Why?

Every time folks start boarding up windows and evacuating the Gulf or Atlantic coastlines, Americans -- voters -- will be remembering Hurricane Katrina. They will be remembering Bush’s pitiful quip, “Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job.” And, they’ll be thinking about global warming and the effect of it on storms.

Which will serve to underline the Bush administration’s fiddling-while-the-earth-burns attitude about international cooperation to address the mounting damage trashy modern life seems to be causing to nature.

It’s unrealistic that frustrated voters, angry at seeing their lives blown to pieces, may blame bad weather on George Bush. Still, who can argue with this -- with hurricanes, what goes around, always comes around?

Furthermore, it certainly isn’t reasonable to say most Republicans don’t care about the future, the nature of the world their children and grandchildren will be living in when they’re gone. But given the Bush administration’s outrageously cavalier attitude about exploiting the environment, to make a quick buck -- like there’s no tomorrow -- it will be understandable if some people do say something like that before this summer gives way to fall.

Hmm ... can't you already hear Bush apologists calling the Weather Channel another a tool of the wicked, tax-and-spend liberals?

"Your daddy's rich
And your mamma's good lookin’
So hush little baby
Don't you cry"