Two Things

1. In case you missed it, we heard three words pass the lips of President Bush that I think it's fair to say many of us expected never to hear: "I take responsibility." In a press availability with Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, Bush said of the Katrina response, "Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government and to the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility." Going further, Bush added "Are we capable of dealing with a severe attack? That’s a very important question and it’s in the national interest that we find out what went on so we can better respond."

It's a horrifying shame that it took the aftermath of Katrina (and way too many days) to prompt the president into making a statement like this. But I hope now that it's out there, we'll be able to act on it and make sure that we are prepared in the future. As I've written, I think that requires an independent investigation.

President Bush is going to make a prime-time speech on Thursday night at 9 p.m. from New Orleans. More news there, or not? We'll see.

2. I've been catching up a bit on the Roberts hearings, which you can watch live on C-SPAN3's Internet feed. The New York Times is providing a running transcript here. So far, I'd say, so good (I'm not all the way through the morning's transcript but I haven't seen anything yet that I find particularly troubling - if there's anything there I'm missing, let me know).