but now WE’RE blaming Bush for Katrina?
Yes, that is nonsense. Once again Karl Rove had his fat fingers on setting his boss up. He was responsible for that stupid photo op showing a dim looking George Bush looking distractedly at a flooded New Orleans from 20, 00 feet on the presidential jet as he flew to California.
Louisiana government failed spectacularly at every level in Katrina and particularly the worthless Gov Blanco and her coterie of fools were in a huge panic and effectively did nothing for days as they tried to figure out a narrative to get them off the hook.
I actually worked on the US Army attempts at responding to the storm effects. The Louisiana state government would absolutely not cooperate in any way. All the normal disaster response actions were stonewalled. All responses HAD to come from the executive office of the Governor. This was made clear in Baton Rouge. The La Army National Guard would not respond to any requests for information on proposed guard mobilization any heavy equipment loans. The La AG office would only say ‘We will tell you how much Title 10 funds we need (not broken down by program) and you all send us the check, You don’t need to know nothing else. The US Army Property and Fiscal Officer told me he was being stonewalled and had a guardsman stationed at his door that demanded the identity of anyone coming to the P&F office. Eventually after going to the state himself Bush got the same treatment only with Sen Mary Landrieu having a hysterical fit and Gov Buncko behaving in the same stone walling mode he just directed the US govt start pushing men and material into the state. The whole operation was really chaotic and did add to the misery of the populace. The Louisiana political establishment were overcome with paranoia that they would be caught in the usual lying and stealing if they were nirmally cooperative with the feds. That is the only thing I can figure caused their behavior.
Blanco was following the DNCs orders on what to do so they could blame Bush.