Posted on 09/05/2005 9:52:43 PM PDT by NavySEAL F-16
Edited on 09/05/2005 11:08:18 PM PDT by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
Sen. Bill Frist rode to the rescue in more ways than one last week, with his call for a comprehensive congressional investigation into the failings of planning and execution of preparing for Hurricane Katrina and the ensuing relief effort.
Frist's efforts weren't intended as a slam at President Bush, who has taken a pummeling in the media from Democrats in Congress, their operatives, and cooperative journalists who were willing to set facts aside for the opportunity to create a political fire storm around the Republican president.
Instead, Frist's call for an investigation sent many Democrats running for cover. "If you look at the history of appropriations and funding of federal dollars, no delegation served their state and major cities better than Louisiana," says a Senate staffer. "In the end, if the Democrats want to place blame, they know the behavior of their party members, for a generation really the only party in power in New Orleans and Louisiana, is damning, and they don't want to draw any more attention to the issue than the media wants to."
Senate Appropriations Committee staff late last week were drawing up statistics on just where the hundreds of millions of dollars set aside for New Orleans over the years, on everything from community support, federal policing dollars, emergency preparedness, and levy control and modernization.
"Let's put it this way," says an Appropriations staffer. "There is a fair degree of certainty up here that dollars that should have gone for projects and programs that might have been helpful in New Orleans' time of need was never used for those purposes. If I were a local politician or a state or local bureaucrat down there, I'd be nervous about now."
Further lost in the aftermath of Katrina's furor was the fact that neither New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin nor Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco had wanted to order a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans, a city of 485,000 people. Both politicians had been avoiding the issue until Saturday, August 27, when President Bush called both Democrats and, according to congressional and White House sources, essentially demanded that a mandatory evacuation be ordered. The order was made on the 28th.
At a news conference announcing the evacuation, Nagin also went on the record predicting that the storm's surge would top the city's protective levees, yet in the aftermath, Nagin was quick to place blame for the levees on Washington.
"There is absolutely no question that federal support should have been put into place sooner and that we were caught flat-footed," says a Homeland Security Department staffer. "But when everything is said and done, nobody is going to want to be in the way of the political fallout that comes from a thorough investigation of what happened down there. And that includes Democrats."
By late Sunday, what had emerged was a picture less to do with Washington, and far more to do with incompetence on the state and local level. Federal emergency preparedness officials were poring over Louisiana's and New Orleans' emergency plans.
"There is a very good reason everyone down there has clammed up about beating on the President," says the Homeland Security staffer.
"The only people who continue to do it are the likes of [Tim] Russert and the New York Times, and they are just feeding off the tragedy for political gain, nothing more. In the end, it's the very people they have been listening to for the past week that they will have to put under a microscope."
Louisiana? Corrupt? DEMOCRATS? I can't believe it. It's all that racist Bush's fault. (sarcasm off).
She keeps popping off when she should be keeping a low profile. Meaning she is not as smart a pol as conservatives fear. She just doesn't have her husband's knack.
Fantastic article and it should have the mayor and the governor of LA and every damned Dem there and in Washington, D.C. quaking in their shoes.
Chicago is not in the same class of corruption as LA and NO. Not even close.
Yes, that's all they can manage to do; when they aren't trashing the president, that is.
Unless I have missed it, the most telling thing is what Bush has not said about New Orleans. I have yet to hear him assure anyone that NO will be re-built "as it was".
I'm away on vacation, so I may have missed it, but I haven't heard him say anything of the sort either.
To hear Sen. Landruei talk you would think LA has not gotten any Federal Money ever. She cannot open her mouth without talking about Federal Dollars for LA.
So true! But, isn't this the usual dem SOP? Throw all the blame on the president or republicans early on so the people hear that first and get all worked up over it. When the truth finally comes out, everyone os so sick of the whole mess that no one wants or cares to hear about it.It has served them well.
Yes I would !!!
Don't be too hard on Chicago. Louisiana has just been at it longer.
Senator dishrag attack Democraps? He's too much of a wuss to pull the constitutional option! Frist is creole for giant walking vagina!
When the power is back on in LA, there may be a blackout from all the shredders being used.
Political retribution would be sweet, but I hope the bigger result of Katrina will be an expansion of domestic energy production and distribution.
"Yup. The Dems of New Orleans and Lousiana are nothing more than a Thieve's Guild - no surprise that they were found wanting when catastrophe demanded they do something that wasn't self-serving... like lead."
Who owns the bus company? That is my only question.
Notice we haven't heard from the Black Caucus since their little meeting with the Bush administration?
I'm willing to bet they got an earful about what was really going on, and are now afraid to bring up the issue for fear of shining light on the Democratic governor and mayor of NO.
Yes, one that investigates specifically (and I guess exclusively) the failures of the federal government.
IIRC, she called for hearings first (anyone I heard of her call first), presumably to pre-empt what Frist wants.
Here's just the tip of the iceberg. How much of this $300M actually was used for its intended purpose?
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