Wow, Joe. Really intelligent and thoughtful commentary on the subject. Every administration and Congress since I have been voting in the early Seventies has made noise about crumbling infrastructure. Neither party has a great record of making it a priority until something collapses. My first inclination would be to cancel Stevens bridge to nowhere and use the money on the MN bridge to somewhere...

Hey, lets not cancel the Steven (R) Bridge to Nowhere. That's the only success story the Rightwing corrupt-O's have to point to.....

The Democrats say, "[the President] must be in the twilight zone" and "He is only trying to divert attention from his failed presidency," while the Republicans say, "The Democrats won last year's elections fair and square," and "Now is not the time to point fingers at anyone." How do you get from there to your summmary, "Politicians in Washington, D.C. began finger-pointing and blaming each other"?

That's like saying Bill and Hillary cheated on each other.

It seems like both sides are too interested in pointing fingers, not interested enough in sorting out the problems that caused tragedies like this.

That said, the Bush administration was only to happy to put any money it had to to start fighting a war on terror, but have there been any major changes since Katrina, and are their going to be any serious changes afyter this tragedy?

Yes. President Bush has caused hurricanes, tornados and wildfires on his watch. He threatened to veto the bill when the already fat appropriation from the House came to the Senate and ballooned by over 22 Billion with the earmarks and goodies. Not veto proof since the hogs need their bacon for local consumption.

We've needed infrastructure repair all these years and what we get is $14 Billion tunnels that leak in Boston and $220 Million bridges serving 82 people in Alaska.

The bridge is another "W" fiasco. While we are blowing 350 million a day in Iraq for an unjustified war which we insist on pursuing despite all shades of Iraquis wanting us out we are neglecting our entire infrastructure, not just bridges. "Twilight zone" is certainly a fitting description of this miserably failed presidency.

They're all to blame! THIRD PARTY NOW!

I blame both political parties in Congress equally for this. The money for transportion has been wasted on pet projects like bike paths and trails. It has been wasted on light rail in Salt Lake City, Utah and now it is being wasted on commuter rail in Salt Lake City, Utah. I read that it is being wasted on light rail in Minnesota. It has been wasted on a pedestrian bridge that is being built across the Missouri between Omaha and Council Bluffs. The money has also been wasted on Sen. Stevens' and Sen. Byrd's pet projects. That money should have been spent on upgrading the existing infrastructure. Local and state governments should pay for light rail and biking trails and other extras.

While all bridges should be looked at, let's not join the "Bridge Hysteria" club, nor jump onto the blame bandwagon. As has been stated, there are 10s of thousands of bidges in the US in use everyday...here are a list of ones that have failed in the past 27 years due to structural failure only (not earthquake, fire, hit by a barge etc)

April 5, 1987: A bridge on the New York State Thruway near Amsterdam, N.Y., gives way, killing 10 people.

June 28, 1983: The Interstate 95 bridge over the Mianus River in Greenwich, Conn., collapses, killing three people.

And that's it. So try to show more itelligence and less herd mentality and not get caught up in "the bridge is falling the bridge is falling"!!!

In view of the recent collapse of the bridge in Minnesota, it brings to mind a 2005 engineering estimate of the cost for America to fix our crumbling infrastructure, and it was an estimated 1.6 trillion dollars.
Now, hold that thought: Yesterday, I heard on the nightly news that the Iraq war has so far cost us 650 billion dollars, and it is likely to cost another one trillion dollars before this war is finished.
So, put two and two together, Americans: we are going deep into debt for an endless war. Yet we need the money we are squandering to fix our infrastructure, so that our children and grandchildren can inherit a country in decent shape here at home.
This represents,in my opinion, a colossal failure of our national leaders to set correct social and spending priorities. and we should all remember to single out the politicians who are wasting sorely needed money with their catastrophic policy decisions and vote them out, when we vote in the next election.

If we can squander $1 trillion on the Iraq civil war quagmire, then we ought to be able to invest $1 trillion in re-building America's infrastructure! Homeland security includes infrastructure security.

I don't think blame should only be cast at the W administration and this senseless war. If the money for needed infrastructure repairs had been appropriated during the Clinton administration, a time of peace and with budget to spare, this and other crumbling bridges may have already been repaired by now and this disaster may have been averted.

Don't forget about the national power grid it's old and in very bad shape.
PC NOAA says there are currently 50 weather projects ongoing.
China can make it rain! If they can we can and so can Russia and probably a few others.
Excellent commentary!

I feel sad for my country when I see people laying the blame for every tragic event at the feet of one political party or the other. I've got news for everybody here: bad things happen. They happen under Republican Presidents. They happen under Democratic Presidents. People make mistakes and bad things happen. Why can't we come together as a country and help each other get through these bad events without exposing hatred? It doesn't do anybody any good, and certainly not the families of those poor people in Minnesota who won't be driving home ever again.

Wow, i really didn't think anyone could use this tragedy for political leverage, but man, some people can never stoop too low to try anyway. I beleive now, that there are some people are really capable of making up any reason to believe Bush is beind every bad thing that has ever happened, no matter how small or how large.

So now, after the people died during the bridge collapse, here we are again, with folks who somehow are capable of making up anything they can to blame Bush with and are actually believing thier own lies.

Wow. I don't know how people live their lives day to day, if in their own mind, their very lives are in serious danger, because Bush is somehow their own private disgruntled god who controls the entire universe.

David M - Yes blame the Clintons, In case you haven't noticed they've been out of office for almost 8 yrs. Get off your party lines and think about what is best for the country NOW !!!!