He’s a joiner

There’s a story on the front of washingtonpost.com that is so terribly, misleadingly titled “Bush Joins Recovery Efforts.”
First off, it’s about time he joined the effort — a week after the event.
But doesn’t that headline make you think that he might actually be on a boat somewhere, helping someone out of a ruined house, maybe handing out just one bottle of water or saving an abandoned dog?
Nope. Of course not.
In reality, here’s what he’s doing:

On Monday, he planned to tour the New Orleans area and Gulfport, Miss., in his third and longest visit to the region in the nearly two weeks since Hurricane Katrina and subsequent flooding struck the states.

… Upon arrival on the flight deck of the ship, Bush was greeted by Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad W. Allen, commander of the New Orleans relief efforts, and Army Lt. Russel Honore, who is coordinating military relief efforts along the Gulf Coast. He then posed for photos with the flight deck crew that has been guided rescue flights and the Marine One helicopter that carried Bush onto the ship.

… On Monday, Bush was to get a briefing aboard the ship from Allen and Honore. The president planned to tour New Orleans in a military truck and then get an aerial tour of some outlying areas by helicopter before visiting Mississippi.

So, once again, he’s going to look around and have photos taken of himself near people who might actually be helping. Um, is he not going to pick up at least one piece of litter?

Meanwhile, remember my prediction from this morning?

… Bush has linked the experience of Sept. 11 and Katrina in his speeches and his weekly radio address.

Will he be able to continue riding on September 11 for the rest of his term, do you think? Or have we finally had enough of his making political points with that calamity?