PRESIDENT Bush’s visit to Katrina-ravaged Louisiana Wednesday follows six months of bungling that threatens political catas trophe for the state’s Republicans. He will boost his belated $4.2 billion plan finally to provide housing for people made homeless by the storm, but it may be too little, too late.

Rep. Richard Baker, a 10-term conservative GOP congressman from Baton Rouge with a 91 percent pro-Bush voting record, sat down with me in his Capitol Hill office last week to talk politics frankly: “The backlash is unknowable, but it is a big concern. . . . We [Republicans] are being measured by this storm response and by what Republicans do to help poor people.”

That appears in the New York Post and was written by Robert Novak. You know things are going bad for Bush when the typical right-wing mouth pieces are now straying from the talking points.

Considering how long it is taking us to rebuild the Gulf Coast, it is no wonder why Iraq has been such a mess. To Bush just saying something is good enough. He never feels his words require any actions.