The more emotional, hand-wringing and angry the reaction to this crisis the more obstacles there are to dealing with it. There was a reason for calm (and seemingly slow at the time) response by the Bush administration to 911. A further panic would have created huge problems for all of us and handed a great victory to the enemy.
The local government in Louisiana has not responded as well as the mayor and governor in New York did in 9/11 – nor as well as they did in the various hurricanes in Florida last year, nor as well as they are now responding in Mississippi.
The Federal government cannot and should not overreach the local authorities. They have the first responsibility. It’s a jurisdictional thing that can (and in this case has) cost lives and property. But as soon as the locals threw up their hands and asked for help, it was on the way – both at the Federal level and by other, surrounding states (like Texas). In fact, the Federal help (FEMA) was pre-positioned ahead of the storm.
What would the reaction have been if all these – Federal and other States – had jumped the gun and forced themselves on Louisiana? IMHO, they would have cried out that they would have done a much better job if the feds and other governors had kept their mitts out of it.
I imagine the ACLU is already hard at work, planning to file lawsuits based on Posse Comitatus for the initiatives taken in the crisis. IMHO, it would be a good thing anyway and might encourage legislation to give a greater right to the federal government to take logistical control in natural disasters when the local authorities are not up to it – e.g. emotional, hand-wringing, angry, confused, etc.
You are correct. Please try to explain these simple constitutional principles of federalism to Miles O'Brien and that thoughtful, generous of heart CNN team.
Dittos.