Times/News

The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in the stars, but in ourselves.

from Shakespeare's

Julius Caesar

The most refreshing headline I've seen in a long time appeared above an editorial in last week's West Seattle Herald/White Center News, our sister publication.

"Sims needs to go" it proclaimed atop editor Jack Mayne's indictment of the two-term liberal Democrat's management of King County government.

"Ron Sims, in his handling of the election mess, and in some of his other actions, has made it clear he is not in control of the county and needs to find a new line of work," Mr. Mayne declared.

In the wake of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, Mr. Sims' continued mismanagement of county agencies demands a serious reality check.

A fundamental concern is, can we depend on this career politician, whose philosophy seems to be "bigger government is better," in a region-wide crisis?

Do we have in place, as a result of his leadership, agencies that will provide an immediate, coordinated and effective response if King County falls victim to a major natural disaster or a terrorist attack?

The county's ongoing problems in the Elections Division and Mr. Sims' mega-millions computer-system boondoggle indicate the answer is a resounding "no!"

(Partisans in his corner will object to painting him as a "tax-and-spend executive, claiming - as does his campaign literature - that he reduced the size of county government. But we can thank Tim Eyman-sponsored initiatives, notably I-695 and I-747, for forcing Mr. Sims to take these actions that run counter to his liberal leanings.)

Ironically, the hysterical blame-game being played by Mr. Sims' fellow Democrats on the national stage encourages these questions, thereby focusing the spotlight on him before - not after - disaster strikes here.

The winds were still blowing in New Orleans, and the levies had not yet broken, when these party leaders started blaming President Bush for everything from causing Katrina to racism in his response.

(These tiresome attacks against President Bush, which are bereft of substance, would be aggravating except for this reality: they reveal the bankruptcy of contemporary liberalism, which is becoming the ruin of a once-great political party.)

There is, without doubt, plenty of blame to go around. There were failures in both disaster preparedness and response at all levels of government.

But, as Bob Williams, president of the Olympia-based Evergreen Freedom Foundation and a former Washington legislator, noted in a column in The Wall Street Journal last week, those with the greatest responsibility for these failures are at Ground Zero, not in Washington, D.C.

The mayor of New Orleans failed to execute his city's own emergency plan. It was this inaction that abandoned the elderly and the poor in those critical hours, not the White House.

Meanwhile, the governor of Louisiana resisted requests by President Bush - who declared an emergency before Katrina hit - to evacuate and accept federal troops.

Whether due to political myopia or mind-boggling incompetence, the result was deadly negligence on the part of local and state officials.

Yet, as Mr. Williams emphasized, the initial response to any major disaster is the responsibility of local and state government, not an unwieldy federal bureaucracy.

And if Mr. Sims' political appointees can't run an election right, should we trust his leadership in a major disaster - when there is no second chance to get it right?

I vote no.

Beyond Katrina: One impact of this natural disaster, which will be felt beyond gas pumps locally, is a likely decrease in donations to Southwest King County food banks as we help our fellow citizens in the Gulf Coast region who lost everything.

But there is an almost painless way to keep food bank shelves filled - and pets fed, too - while we continue to provide hurricane relief.

Each time we go to the store, we can buy two or four or 10 extra cans or boxes of food, and put them in collection bins.

Food for thought - and action at the personal level.

Ralph Nichols' views are his own, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Times/News. Nichols can be reached at newsdesk@robinsonnews.com, or at 206-444-4873.