Bernie and New Orleans

Yesterday, as Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff described "isolated criminal misbehavior" while, on the split-screen, anarchy ruled, it was possible to wonder how Bush's first choice for the job would have performed.

This is local sacrilege these days, after the frenzy of damaging revelations that followed the announcement of Bernie Kerik's planned appointment.

But does anyone else think he might have grasped the urgency of the law-and-order crisis in New Orleans more quickly, and reacted more forcefully?