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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

Peggy Noonan is one of the clearer thinkers writing on politics. This 
article may be found at:
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110007291

PEGGY NOONAN

'Whatever It Takes'
Is Bush's big spending a bridge to nowhere?

Thursday, September 22, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT

George W. Bush, after five years in the presidency, does not intend to get 
sucker-punched by the Democrats over race and poverty. That was the driving 
force behind his Katrina speech last week. He is not going to play the part 
of the cranky accountant--"But where's the money going to come 
from?"--while the Democrats, in the middle of a national tragedy, swan 
around saying "Republicans don't care about black people," and "They're 
always tightwads with the poor."

In his Katrina policy the president is telling Democrats, "You can't 
possibly outspend me. Go ahead, try. By the time this is over Dennis 
Kucinich will be crying uncle, Bernie Sanders will be screaming about pork."

That's what's behind Mr. Bush's huge, comforting and boondogglish plan to 
spend $200 billion or $100 billion or whatever--"whatever it takes"--on 
Katrina's aftermath. And, I suppose, tomorrow's hurricane aftermath.

George W. Bush is a big spender. He has never vetoed a spending bill. When 
Congress serves up a big slab of fat, crackling pork, Mr. Bush responds 
with one big question: Got any barbecue sauce? The great Bush spending 
spree is about an arguably shrewd but ultimately unhelpful reading of 
history, domestic politics, Iraq and, I believe, vanity.

This, I believe, is the administration's shrewd if unhel