■"Bush Wants to Consider Broadening of Military's Powers During Natural Disasters: Some experts say the president already has all the legal authority he needs to act," by David E. Sanger, New York Times, 27 September 2005, p. A18.

■"GOP in Congress Leads on Energy, Disaster Policy: Panel to Begin an Inquiry into the Katrina Response and the Military's Role," by Robert Block and John D. McKinnon, Wall Street Journal, 27 September 2005, p. A3.

■"When Storm Hit, National Guard Was Deluged Too: Slow Response Faulted; Troop Deployment to Iraq Hurt Louisiana Effort, Commanders Say," by Scott Shane and Thom Shanker, New York Times, 28 September 2005, p. A1.

■"Hurricanes' aftermath whips up new deal for president: Bush's ambitions plans draw sharp GOP criticism," by Susan Page, USA Today, 28 September 2005, p. 1A.

The political deconstruction on Katrina continues unabated.

I give Bush credit: when he recognizes failure, he's willing to entertain bold ideas.

Experts will say: you have the authority now, but authority isn't everything. What the country and the government need is a military that recognizes that there is no appreciable distance between themselves and the people. The military is not separate, not distinct, not beyond. It exists to provide security, whenever and wherever it's needed.

The military will resist this call for an expanded role. Leaders will claim all sorts of danger to operational readiness, ignoring the fact that the majority of their operations around the world since the Cold War involve exactly this constellation of skills. What many in the military fear from Katrina is that it will serve as a tipping point toward a universe of responsibilities they have long disparaged and kept subordinate to preferred scenarios.

But the reality is that we have both militaries: one that exists to make smoking holes and little else and one that exists to enable that first force to do its thing. I'm not talking about abusing that first force, just tapping the obvious skills sets of the latter.

We will be told that because Louisiana's Guard was itself impacted by the hurricane, that was a major cause of the slow response, but the real story is more mundane than that. The bias against stepping in proactively is profound and pervasive across the military. When Guard personnel (from other states) already in region for training aggressively volunteer on their free days to go in and help with the clean-up, only to be told by superiors, "no thanks," you know the problem runs very deep, despite all the rhetoric.

Meanwhile, Bush demonstrates his continued willingness to bite off more than the GOP is comfortable chewing. He is definitely moving into LBJ range. In the end, he will outdo Reagan in his massive expansion of the federal government.