Drudge-Developing: WHITE HOUSE MULLED SEIZING RELIEF MISSION

Drudge ^

[sissyjane]

>> WHITE HOUSE MULLED SEIZING RELIEF MISSION // Invoke the Insurrection Act? Bush's senior advisers debated last week whether the president should seize control of the chaotic hurricane relief mission from the governor so that active-duty combat troops could be sent to enforce order... Developing

Update******

Political Issues Snarled Plans for Troop Aid

"WASHINGTON, Sept. 8 - As New Orleans descended into chaos last week and Louisiana's governor asked for 40,000 soldiers, President Bush's senior advisers debated whether the president should speed the arrival of active-duty troops by seizing control of the hurricane relief mission from the governor.

For reasons of practicality and politics, officials at the Justice Department and Pentagon, and then at the White House, decided not to urge Mr. Bush to take command of the effort.

Instead, the Washington officials decided to rely on the growing number of National Guard personnel flowing into Louisiana, who were under Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco's control. The debate was triggered as officials began to realize that Hurricane Katrina exposed a critical flaw in the national disaster response plans created after the Sept. 11 attacks. According to the administration's senior homeland security officials, the hurricane showed the failure of their plan to recognize that local police, fire and medical personnel might be incapacitated and unable to act quickly until reinforcements arrive on the scene..."

".. To seize control of the mission, Mr. Bush would have had to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows the president in times of unrest to command active-duty forces into the states to perform law enforcement duties. But decision makers in Washington felt certain that Governor Blanco would have resisted surrendering control of the military relief mission as Bush Administration officials believe would have been required to deploy active-duty combat forces before law and order had been re-established. While troops can conduct relief missions without the legal authority of the Insurrection Act, Pentagon and military officials say that no active-duty forces could have been sent into the chaos of New Orleans on Wednesday or Thursday without confronting law-and-order challenges......."

[kittymyrib]

"They wanted to take over MY National Guard." This is what happens when you give a high school typing teacher too much power. What a nut!

[Mister Baredog]

What an idiot!! Does she claim ownership of the corpses too?

She's still looking for a clue, sadly.

[StAnDeliver]

bump to your 39

[curiosity]

It was a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.

[deport]

What an idiot!! Does she claim ownership of the corpses too?

---

Seems she's trying her best to pass them off to someone else.

[GoLightly]

Does she claim ownership of the corpses too?

Guess you'll have to see who gets their vote in the next election...

[Dog Gone]

That fits the same timing. At the same time the blame was already being put on the Administration, Louisiana was balking at the Guard crossing the state lines.

It fits with everything else we've learned.

[feedback doctor]

Great info, wait till the 'hearings' and the tapes of the conversations with Blanco and Nagin come out. I also bet there were phone calls to Democratic leaders in congress asking them to help get the Louisiana folks on board so disaster could be avoided. I bet it's gonna get real embarrasing for some democrats.

[curiosity]

I think you're right. Unfotunately, no politician today has the kind of spine necessary to do what you suggest.

We live in sad times, when namby-pamby political correctness infects everything, even the right.

[curiosity]

If whatever you do is going to displease the jerks, why try to please them?

The goal isn't to please anyone; it is to save lives.

[LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget]

Hitler would have siezed control...


DAMN Bush doesnt equal Hitler.


Damn, this ruins my day big time

I was so so so sure BUSH=HITLER


heh

[onyx]

I think you might have the nic with the most letters.

[patriciaruth]

Do you have a source about diversion of funds for strengthening the levees?

So far I've just heard rumors, seen no sources.

[Milwaukee_Guy]

"President Bush's senior advisers debated whether the president should speed the arrival of active-duty troops by seizing control of the hurricane relief mission from the governor."

Uh, looks like we are doing the "un-named" sources thing here.

I ain't buying it, until someone is willing to put their name on it.

[Republican Red]

This article highlights what an incompetent boob Blanco is. If the MSM play up this NY Times piece don't they also have to get into what would be driving the White House to want to take over State control. Isn't this an opening to get coverage on the Red Cross/Salvation Amy/LA Homeland Security story?

Where am I wrong? I don't see this story as bad for Bush. In fact the Whwite House prbably leaked it.

[Fred Nerks]

I know no more than I read on FR. I am in Australia, just trying to help.

[billnaz]

"The goal isn't to please anyone; it is to save lives."

Yes, I know that. My point, in case it went past you, was that President Bush and those around him are doing their very best to alleviate the suffering while the Democrats and their water-carriers in the media are taking a lot of cheap shots at him. They should be ashamed, but they have no shame.

[Randy Larsen]

You cannot keep a timeline like this horrific timeline secret for long.

I agree. It's only a matter of time.

[ANGGAPO]

The Dumbacrats would have had a field day with that one. As you said, he was damned if he did and damned if he didn't.

[Ray66]

From the article

"By Friday, National Guard reinforcements had arrived, and a truck convoy of 1,000 Guard soldiers brought relief supplies - and order - to the convention center area."

Is this really the first major influx into the area of relief supplies? That's the way I read it and watched it on TV. That's 72 hours of inaction by Gov Blanco to the BIGGEST natural disaster to hit the US. So during this 72hr PAUSE of inaction by the government of LA they denied basic food and water to 10,000's of people in 90F weather that took it's toll the past few days and she allowed people to die.

So was the media was really pushing one of the two to act? Local or Fed? Or as somebody posted earlier it's all about control of the money in the end for rebuilding?