As Bush and his cohorts face ever increasing criticism thanks to their clear failure in both readiness and relief efforts concerning Hurricane Katrina, the hunt is on to find some scapegoat other than sheer incompetence. According to the Mississippi Clarion-Ledger, a leaked internal Justice Department e-mail points to a run at blaming environmentalists for Bush’s refusal to rebuild New Orleans’s once-sagging, now washed-out levees.

U.S. attorneys received an e-mail asking if they’d defended “the Army Corps of Engineers against claims brought by environmental groups seeking to block or otherwise impede the Corps’ work on the levees protecting New Orleans?”

The e-mail goes on to ask how any such case turned out. While the Justice Department has refused comment, environmental groups and a few Democrats say the question is the first step in the White House’s attempt wipe off some of its filth.

Ranking House Judiciary Democrat John Conyers has written the Attorney-General demanding answers but none have come so far.

» Scott Saxon