Posted on 09/03/2005 7:29:17 PM PDT by HAL9000
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Arkansan James Lee Witt, the former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency under President Bill Clinton, joined the Louisiana government Saturday to help direct the recovery from Hurricane Katrina.Witt, who ran FEMA from 1993 to 2001, said he will stay as long as he as needed.
"He will sit at the table for me, and he will be my voice at the table," Gov. Kathleen Blanco said.
Louisiana officials are getting stretched too thin and need help, she said.
"I like to hire the smartest people in the country," she added.
Witt has more than 25 years of disaster management experience.
FEMA had been strongly criticized in 1992 for its slow response to Hurricanes Andrew and Hugo. After Witt took over, the agency won praise for its vigorous reaction to Midwest floods and the 1994 Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles.
Blanco said that, when she told Mike Brown, FEMA's current head, that she hoped to hire him, "he said, `That is absolutely the right thing to do. He will make a huge difference.'"
At the National Hurricane Conference in March, Witt said putting FEMA under the Homeland Security Department hurt its ability to deal with natural disasters.
On Saturday, he said, "Now's not the time to point blame at anyone."
Witt was head of the Arkansas Office of Emergency Services when Clinton was Arkansas governor.
Is that an admission of incompetence, or what?
Better to have Witt in there than Blanco. She's toast.
Isn't that "Bag of Cash" Rodney from day minus one as Clinton's Arkansas Transportation Secretary?
She's started grabbing for money on Monday, and since she has no voice (and Landrieu apparently doesn't either), she got a hired gun.
What recovery?
All the people are being relocated.
Without people, there's no city.
Great minds think alike but your fingers are faster. :0)
Now we will know where all the BLAME BUSH HE HATES BLACKS, "leaks" will be coming from.
It's my opinion that every state should have at least one Democratic governor in its lifetime just to remind themselves why it should happen as rarely as possible.
I've never been a big fan of Witt, but when you're at the bottom, everything else is up.
Listening to Witt talk gives me the hives.
Abdicating the thrown.
Nonsense, she's a "victim" of the Bush Admin.
Don't you watch the "news"?
Nice...I guess Blanko finally found the Preparedness Folder with the forms in it...only they're from the Clinton adminstration. I'm sure Witt will pull down a nice chunk of cash from those unused emergency funds.
It's more like an admission that it is POLITICAL.
Who is Nagin going to hire?
She has apparently started getting some good advice. Now, if she can find a pen and start signing some emergency purchase orders it will all work out.
....because I'm too stupid, incompetent and disrespected.
Now the governor wants us to believe she's in a position to make decisions now. I'd say it was Bush once again who got his man.
Well alright! we have a voice. Now if we can get a brain, and some action, we can build a "Franken-Govenor!
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