Here's a National Guard primer for the MSM and apparently, members of Congress :
Rokke wrote
" I've been a Guard member for the last 8 years in two different states.
I am well aware of my chain of command and when I fall under the authority of the President and when I fall under the authority of the Governor.
No President has ever taken away a Governor's authority to command his state's National Guard troops in the time of a natural disaster. "
Darksheare wrote-
" As a former National Guard soldier, I will tell you:
The president could not order troops into Louisiana over the heads of Blanco or any other states troops would be pulled from.
National Guard has both a state and federal mission.
When not activated for war,
the governor acts as the commander of troops in his or her state.
BLANCO had the impetus to call them out, and FAILED TO DO SO.
It was not on the President to do her job."
Col Hunt on O'R last night :
Gov Blanco had her Louisiana National Guard troops and assests prepositioned-but, did not pull the trigger.
President Bush should have realized the collapse of state govt ( my words ) and federalized troops.
Legal considerations here, but, that could have been overcome.
Louisiana National Guard were staged 30 miles north of NO- Governor had no eyes on the ground, no communication in NO to assess the situation-people not evacing, levees breaking,etc.
Everyone had 5 days notice storm was coming at state level and no prep was done.
My words-
Blame falls on Gov Blanco, Gov Blanco, Gov Blanco and secondarily -President Bush- for trusting that Democrat Governor Blanco had situation in hand and failing to step in earlier and federalize the entire military situation.
And of course, had President Bush stepped in and legally usurped Blanco- the Democrats would have gone ballistic.
"And of course, had President Bush stepped in and legally usurped Blanco- the Democrats would have gone ballistic. "
That sums it up right there.
With hindsight, they would have deeply regreted that (I strongly doubt that would have happened; they would be relieved to be able to blame someone else if things went wrong). In any event, they would have waited to see which way the wind was blowing as it were. If the hurricane had just decided to turn around and go back to Cuba, well maybe then they would have howled. So what? Let them howl. The buck stops you know where. One is there to just take the heat.