LA Sen. Landrieu: Sunken buses are because administration doesn't believe in mass transit [huh?]

Fox News Sunday | September 11, 2005 | John Jorsett (me)

[John Jorsett]

I was just watching Fox News Sunday interview Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, and I couldn't believe what she was saying. Here's my transcript of part of it. Sorry if I've mangled any of the proper names; I'm not going to go to the trouble of looking them up:

Chris Wallace: "Was it incompetent and insulting for Mayor Ray nagin to order a mandatory evacuation, but then to leave buses -- and we have a picture of them -- hundreds of buses idle so that they could be flooded instead of using them to get people out?"

Senator Landrieu: "Well, Chris, I was there as you know through the whole ordeal with state and local officials, and was right there with Louisiana Democrats and Republicans, city council members, police chiefs, mayors, and governors. And could watch what Hayley Barbour was doing and Governor Reilly in Alabama. I am not going to level criticism at the local level. These people did ..."

Wallace: "But I'd like to answer if you could this one significant question ..."

Landrieu: "I will answer it. I'm not going to level criticism at local and state officials. Mayor Nagin and most mayors in this country have a hard time getting their people to work on a sunny day, less [sic] alone getting them out of the city in front of a hurricane. It's because this administration and administrations before them do not understand the difficulties that mayors, whether they're in Orlando, Miami, or New Orleans face. In other words, ..."

Wallace: "But but wait. Senator. Senator ..."

Landrieu: "... this administration does not believe in mass transit. They won't even get people to work on a sunny day less [sic] alone getting them out ..."

Wallace: "But Senator. Senator, there were hundreds of buses sitting in that parking lot ..."

Landrieu: "... less [sic] alone getting them out ... I'll tell you why ..."

Wallace: " ... can I just ask the question?"

Landrieu: "You can, but let me finish ...

Wallace" "Well ... well ... well there were hundreds of buses ... if I might ... here, we're looking at a picture ... there were hundreds of buses in parking lots. THe city ... It wasn't underwater before the evacuation."

Landrieu: "Those buses were underwater ..."

Walace: "They weren't underwater on Sunday ..."

Landrieu: "We had two catastrophes. We had a hurricane and then we had a levee break. When the levee broke, not only did New Orleans go underwater, but Saint Bernard went underwater, and Saint Tammany parish went underwater ..."

Wallace: "But they weren't underwater on Sunday ..."

Landrieu: "... and Plackman went underwater. And because the mayor evacuated the city, we had the best evacuation between Hayley Barbour and Kathleen Blanco of any evacuation I've sen. I'm 50 years old, I've never seen one any better."

Walace: "But there were 100,000 people left in the city."

Landrieu: "They did 100,000 people left in the city because this federal government won't support cities to evacuate people, whether it's from earthquakes, tornados, or hurricanes. That's the truth, and that will come out in the hearings."

[Cobra64]

"Mayor Nagin and most mayors in this country have a hard time getting their people to work on a sunny day,..."

Hey, Landrieu, rewind four years, to this DAY, you idiot.

[NewJerseyJoe]

>> When did Chris Wallace discover some stones?

He might be using Nagin's.
Nagin sure as hell isn't using them.

[Jank]

So is she saying, they couldn't get anyone to drive, all those buses, out of NO, because its hard to get NO people
to work! TOAST!

[Stultis]

Wow. Landrieu is either the stupidest person to ever hold a Federal office

C'mon. That's just not true. There's...

[evangmlw]

I'm sure she thinks most of those who voted her into office are more stupid than she is herself; hence, they will have no problem re-electing her because they are not educated enough to know any better.

[I see my hands]

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I like silence.

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[Dante3]

If this is accurate, I think Landrieu is losing it. She doesn't make sense. Headed for a breakdown?

[evangmlw]

It's accurate! I saw it and absolutely could not believe what I was hearing. Worst than the ranglings of Charlie Rangle.

[mercy]

Mary's the kind of girl the dark side of me would like to take advantage of. Use and discard. (I hate myself sometimes)

[LA Woman3]

NO ONE could have evacuated NO. Not with all the buses in the world and an 8 day week to get it done. At least 20,000 of em would have locked themselves into their steel barred houses and refused to leave.


You have a good point.....There are still people refusing to leave the city when their houses are surrounded by Toxic water!! I saw a family being interviewed by Katie Couric last week. The lady said they were going to stay, even though they had a boat in front of their house, no electricity and no water service. She said they would survive and then added, "Katie, we are on the parade route!" Unbelievable!

[SauronOfMordor]

Mary Landrieu's aunt, Phillis Landrieu, was and is a dominant board member of the New Orleans School district. The school district was not cooperative on the subject of making the buses available for evacuation purposes during planning sessions in June. This may be why the bus issue makes her very uncomfortable

[dware]

or she's so desperate to spin this into an anti-Bush jihad that she started to sputter incoherently.

BINGO!

[JohnnyP]

Wasn't she first elected to the senate in '92 (year of the woman). If I remember, there was a question of vote fraud back then, and she wasn't declared winner until the votes were "recounted".

[Heatseeker]

My theory is that the Army Corps of Engineers has mistakenly hooked up one of their pumps to Mary's head and so all her brain cells are being sucked out. Every time she says something, it seems to me she's shed about 20 IQ points.

But no worries Mary dear, you're still a genius compared to my senator:

[Abby4116]

Part of the interview is on video on foxnews.com The video under "blame"

foxnews

[ark_girl]

Side topic, but you don't really "evacuate" from a tornado unless you live in a trailor or something. You find the innermost room of your house and (better yet) if you have a basement, you go there.

How do I know that you may ask? Well, my schools and the LOCAL officials TAUGHT me that in ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. The LOCAL news also FREQUENTLY explains said strategy everytime the weather is right for tornadoes.

Also, guess what. I grew up in a town with a nuclear plant...same thing. Every year, someone from the CITY would come to my SCHOOL and explain to us what to do if we heard the sirens go off, warning of danger from the nuke plant. They told us WHAT CITY TO GO TO and if we didn't have transportation, they told us WHERE TO CATCH A BUS to take us to said city.

Novel, huh?

[SauronOfMordor]

Where is Mary in the elected chain of authority here?

As Senator, nowhere.

As an influential member of the Landrieu clan, which pretty-much OWNS the Louisiana political class, right in the cross hairs.

Her brother Mitch is Lt Gov. Her dad ( Moon Landrieu )was the prior mayor of New Orleans. Her aunt Phillis effectively controls the NOLA school board (and thus the school buses)

[wildbill]

She started out saying she didn't think it was right to start with 'the blame game.'

But then Wallace pointed out she had gone on the Senate floor last week and specifically pointed the blame at the Bush administration.

Remember she is up for election in 2006. She can't afford to anger Dem politicos or split the Dem base

[John Jorsett]

She started out saying she didn't think it was right to start with 'the blame game.'

But then Wallace pointed out she had gone on the Senate floor last week and specifically pointed the blame at the Bush administration.

Yes, I saw that. She wasn't thrilled with having that thrown in her face, either.