On the September 8 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, Roll Call executive editor Morton M. Kondracke described as “abusive” and “bordering on disgraceful” the refusal of Democrats to participate in a new Republican-controlled joint congressional committee that would investigate the federal government's handling of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Kondracke also attacked House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for publicly calling President Bush “oblivious” but ignored the full context of her criticism.

Prior to attacking the Democratic leadership as “abusive” and “disgraceful,” Kondracke argued that the commission proposed by congressional Republicans on September 7 will feature “lots of bipartisanship.” In fact, the degree of bipartisanship on the proposed commission is currently unknown. What is understood, according to a September 8 Washington Post article, is that Republicans will outnumber Democrats under the proposed plan:

Yesterday, congressional Republicans tried to get a head start, announcing the formation of an investigative commission that they can control.

They rejected Democratic appeals to model the panel after the Sept. 11 commission, which was made up of non-lawmakers and was equally balanced between Republicans and Democrats. That commission won wide praise for assessing how the 2001 terrorist attacks occurred, and for recommending changes in the government's anti-terrorism structure.

House and Senate GOP leaders announced the “Hurricane Katrina Joint Review Committee,” which will include only members of Congress, with Republicans outnumbering Democrats by a yet-to-be-determined ratio.

Democrats want “a commission of independent experts like the 9/11 commission,” the Post quoted Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) as saying.

In an apparent attempt to bolster his characterization of the Democrats as “abusive,” Kondracke turned to Pelosi's recent description of President Bush as “oblivious.” He vaguely paraphrased her comments as “something about Bush being oblivious and, you know, out of touch or something.” In fact, Pelosi said much more than that. At a September 7 press conference, she described her exchange with Bush during a meeting the previous day:

PELOSI: When I said to the president that he should fire [Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) director] Michael Brown, he said, “Why would I do that?” I said, “Because of all that went wrong, with all that didn't go right last week.” And he said, “What didn't go right?” Oblivious, in denial, dangerous.

Numerous media outlets have either ignored Pelosi's account or mischaracterized her comments by reporting only her description of Bush as “oblivious” and “dangerous” and not the alleged statements by Bush that led to Pelosi's assessment.

From the September 8 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume:

KONDRACKE: On the merits, on this thing -- look, this commission -- the Senate chairman of this was going to be Susan Collins [R-ME]. You can't be much more fair-minded than she is. It was going to be set up like the Iran-Contra commission during the Reagan administration, with lots of bipartisanship. And I think that the Democrats across the board, the leadership of the Democrats, is bordering on disgraceful here. I mean, they're becoming abusive. I mean, as though Harry Reid is saying, “Well, whatever committee there has to be has to investigate whether Bush spent too much time on vacation and whether he ignored the Katrina scandal.” And Nancy Pelosi yesterday was saying something about Bush being oblivious and, you know, out of touch or something. But it was personal. This is not what you do in the face of a national tragedy.