Anderson Cooper: handsome, charming, and now provocative too!

I sometimes find it difficult to comment on any journalism-related topic without the actual issue buried under frustrating red herrings like accusations of "media bias" and the like, but all the same, here is an except from CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees. It's part of an exchange between the show's eponymous host and US Senator Mary Landrieu (a Democrat from Louisiana). Taken without permission from the transcript.

COOPER: Joining me from Baton Rouge is Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu. Senator, appreciate you joining us tonight. Does the federal government bear responsibility for what is happening now? Should they apologize for what is happening now?

SEN. MARY LANDRIEU (D), LOUISIANA: Anderson, there will be plenty of time to discuss all of those issues, about why, and how, and what, and if. But, Anderson, as you understand, and all of the producers and directors of CNN, and the news networks, this situation is very serious and it's going to demand all of our full attention through the hours, through the nights, through the days.

Let me just say a few things. Thank President Clinton and former President Bush for their strong statements of support and comfort today. I thank all the leaders that are coming to Louisiana, and Mississippi, and Alabama to our help and rescue.

We are grateful for the military assets that are being brought to bear. I want to thank Senator Frist and Senator Reid for their extraordinary efforts.

Anderson, tonight, I don't know if you've heard -- maybe you all have announced it -- but Congress is going to an unprecedented session to pass a $10 billion supplemental bill tonight to keep FEMA and the Red Cross up and operating.

COOPER: Excuse me, Senator, I'm sorry for interrupting. I haven't heard that, because, for the last four days, I've been seeing dead bodies in the streets here in Mississippi. And to listen to politicians thanking each other and complimenting each other, you know, I got to tell you, there are a lot of people here who are very upset, and very angry, and very frustrated.

And when they hear politicians slap -- you know, thanking one another, it just, you know, it kind of cuts them the wrong way right now, because literally there was a body on the streets of this town yesterday being eaten by rats because this woman had been laying in the street for 48 hours. And there's not enough facilities to take her up.

I'm not really sure where I stand with this one. If nothing else it's obviously emblematic of our tendency do want to find fault with somebody, anybody, when something bad happens. We can't very well find somebody to blame for a catastrophic hurricane as easily as we can somebody to blame for, say, a catastrophic terrorist attack (OOPS! There's that tired parallel again, but really, we couldn't find enough people to blame for 9/11), so we turn to those in charge of the cleanup. Indeed, Cooper was so insistent on doing so that he asked Landrieu, point blank, "Do you get the anger that is out there?" Tellingly, he followed up with, "Well, who are you angry at?" Because we can't just be angry that thousands of people are dead, and half a million people or more are homeless, some if not most permanently, and there's not a whole lot we can do about it. We have to be angry at someone.

But having acknowledged that, doesn't Cooper have a point? Isn't it about time somebody started cutting through politicians' irritating BS and made them face the fact that there are real people in real places who have to live with the consequences of this disaster, and the knowledge that Congress has passed a no-brainer bill isn't going to help them live through the night when relief can't seem to find its way through? Landrieu happened to make an easy target for Cooper, who was understandably upset after witnessing the conditions in Waveland, Mississippi (a severe scolding to the first person to make a joke about the name of the town), so she might not be the appropriate target here. I'm not sure who is, although I'm fairly infuriated by President Bush's assertion that it's not the time to "play politics" by questioning the apparent inadequacy of the relief efforts so far.* I guess all I'm saying is that it's perfectly natural to be upset when people seem to want to coast by on good intentions.

Final note: If you want to see the difference between a professional politician and a real person who happens to hold a political office, contrast Landrieu's reaction with that of New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin. Nagin has been on TV all week openly and passionately decrying the lack of help his city has received, culminating in his now-famous "desperate SOS," and Landrieu, a life long New Orleans resident and daughter of a former New Orleans mayor, still manages to find space in her quasi-answer to Cooper to kiss up to Harry Reid and Bill Frist.

*This is a classic Bush II tactic, the implied suggestion that this is yet another situation where you're either with us (the US led by Bush) or against us, and that if you're with us, you don't need to question things. It's also characteristic in that it's blatantly hypocritical, because when people raise legitimate questions, and he dismisses them as merely "playing politics," he demonizes and discredits anybody asking the questions by portraying them as petty partisans. Which sure sounds like "playing politics" to me.

I might catch some hell for this one (it may well remind me why I resolved to try to avoid more political issues), but... let's let 'er rip.