I think Frank Rich is way off this week, particularly in his conclusion:
The only good news from the oil spill is that when catastrophe strikes, even some hard-line conservatives, like Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, start begging for the federal government to act, and act big. It’s the crunch moment for government to make its case [for robust government action]— as Obama belatedly started to do on Thursday. But words are no match for results. As long as the stain washes up on shore, the hole in BP’s pipe will serve the right as a gaping hole in the president’s argument for expanded government supervision of, for starters, Big Oil and big banks. It’s not just the gulf that could suffer for decades to come.
Rich notes that the federal government looks impotent because they can’t cap the well in the Gulf of Mexico. And that feeds into the conservative narrative that the federal government is incompetent. But, that’s ignores what people want in this case. They want the federal government to take over. They wish the government had the tools to take over. They are going to demand that the government get the tools to deal with a future leak. They are going to demand the government more closely regulate the offshore drilling industry. So, Rich’s argument actually makes no sense.
