More editorializing masquerading as news...

When President Bush returned to the Gulf Coast on Monday, many of us thought it was a part of the Hurricane relief effort. He wanted to check again on FEMA's progress, maybe. Or maybe he felt that it would help the relief effort to keep attention focused on it. Or he wanted to meet again with the local representatives, to see what else needed to be done.

But, no, apparently none of that was the case. At least not according to Knight-Ridder's Ron Hutcheson. No, apparently the reason that the President returned was political damage control.

President Bush returned to the Gulf Coast on Monday as part of a White House effort to ease public anger over the sluggish federal response to Hurricane Katrina.

Not as part of the disaster relief effort. Not as part of the Federal government's clean-up effort. No, just part of a "White House effort to ease public anger." How Mr. Hutcheson knows that is not made clear. Maybe he has a confidential source inside the White House leaking that to him, and him alone.

Or maybe, just possibly, he is, as so many have done in the past week, editorializing in a news story. Again...