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I didn't get to see Russert last Sunday, but heard enough about it on FR and from some family, that I went out and found the transcript.

While Russert was scathing with Chertoff, I noticed that he didn't press Broussard on this question:

"MR. RUSSERT: Hold on. Hold on, sir. Shouldn't the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of New Orleans bear some responsibility? Couldn't they have been much more forceful, much more effective and much more organized in evacuating the area? "

Broussard dodged the question:

"MR. BROUSSARD: Sir, they were told like me, every single day, "The cavalry's coming," on a federal level, "The cavalry's coming, the cavalry's coming, the cavalry's coming." I have just begun to hear the hoofs of the cavalry. The cavalry's still not here yet, but I've begun to hear the hoofs, and we're almost a week out. "

Russert should have pointed out that his question referred to preparedness and evacuation, i.e., pre-Katrina, not post. He would not have given Chertoff a pass on an answer like this.

Broussard managed to get a plug in about how wonderful the Mayor and the Governor were and what a great job they were doing. Then, he went on to tell the story of his friend's mother drowing in a nursing home:

"MR. BROUSSARD: ...that have worked 24/7. They're burned out, the doctors, the nurses. And I want to give you one last story and I'll shut up and let you tell me whatever you want to tell me. The guy who runs this building I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, "Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?" And he said, "Yeah, Mama, somebody's coming to get you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday." And she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night. "

When I read that I thought, "why hadn't they gone in? Where was water still rising in LA on the Friday after Katrina struck? They had phone communication? And in all the hours which elapsed between Monday and Friday, someone at a local level couldn't do anything?"

I've been saying all week to friends and family that something was just not right with that story.

It was tragic that those residents were not evacuated from the nursing home. But it's depraved to use it for political posturing and imply that it was the Fed response that led to their deaths.

A slight digression or 2: In trying to demonstrate how long it took the Feds to respond some local government leader commented along the lines of "we sat here and waited day after day and nobody came, no help came." Why didn't they get off their butts and do something instead of just sit there?

And while I'm on a rant, how about Nagin's latest. Asked if he bore some of the blame, he said he did. Asked what he would have done differently, he said, "Scream louder, I should have screamed louder."

Wrong answer, Mayor. Wrong answer.