You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.
The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself, but in so doing, he identifies himself with people - that is, people everywhere, not for the purpose of taking them apart, but simply revealing their true nature.
Katrina took away his agenda, and maybe his image as a leader, unless he pulls it out in the next few days. His initial reaction was certainly not as quick and compassionate as a lot of people would have liked.
I thought once he was out, people would move on. But he is still there, concentrating power within the leadership and himself.
Most presidents eventually have to shed people who are liabilities in order to survive.
This is an old story that keeps repeating: The people who are way out there and pushing the limits of power, they eventually are pushed out themselves. Jim Wright and Newt Gingrich did that, and they went. Now Tom DeLay. It was just a matter of time.
The things we laugh at are awful while they are going on, but get funny when we look back. And other people laugh because they've been through it too. The closest thing to humor is tragedy.
In the pathways between office and home and home and the houses of settled people there are always, ready to snap at you, the little perils of routine living, but there is no escape in the unplanned tangent, the sudden turn.