Speaking of the Mine dissaster:

I fully understand that there will be those on a certain side of the political divide who are going to continue to do everything they can to paint this disaster as avoidable or the result of inadequate government regulation and enforcement. Fine. Let them make their best case for it, and if their accusations are born out in the form of facts, then there should be some changes. The trick will be getting them to acknowledge that they were wrong, should that turn out to be the case.

Several of you have written to me linking to one story or another, saying to the effect "I know this pisses you off to be pointing fingers in the face of tragedy." No. Not at all. What pisses me off is what Scott Shields did the other day- pointing fingers and chucking bodies at people without any facts, and, worse still, while the miners were still in harms way. These poor men weren't even dead yet, and these hacks were using their deaths as ammunition for their little political crusade against Bush.

I have not joined the chorus of voices calling the tragedy a "Republican Dissaster," because I simply don't know. I am not an expert in mining, and it is too early to tell what really happened. But as I said yesterday, I do want to undertand better why the mine was still open after so many safety violations. Someone who understands the nature of enforcement in these issues has probably already answered this question. But I think a lot of us just want to know, could this have been avoided with stricter enforcement?

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