Quite obviously, the meatiest and most contentious pieces of the investigations will be how responsibility and blame will be apportioned between state and federal officials. And it barely need be said that this just happens to be easy to label as a Democrat versus Republican issue.

So let's look not too far into the future when these reports are published. We know already these investigations are effectively GOP-sponsored and overseen. And let's say there is plenty of criticism that is substantively well directed at the Louisiana state government.

The fact that the investigations were not independent in the first place will automatically trigger further partisan rancor and bitterness. Whatever lessons should be learnt from the disastrous preparation for and response to Katrina will be buried beneath the headline-dominating partisan fights that are guaranteed to break out.

This, however, is precisely what Karl Rove wants. It is what he always wants. He has never missed an opportunity to use a national catastrophe to divide this country politically, and Katrina is no different.

What good might come out of these reports is actually not the administration's key objective. Indeed, pinning the blame at the State level is not the key objective. The key objective is to intensify political divisions in this country further.

I don't think anyone expects the Republicans to rein in Karl Rove and his sickly divisive strategies, so let's hope the Democrats can step up with the right response on this issue. Just expose the GOP strategy for what it is - once again, it's pretty blatant.