LANDRIEU: Well, I will. I will answer it. I am 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, let alone getting them out of the city in front of a hurricane. And it's because this administration and administrations before them do not understand the difficulties that mayors -- whether they are in Orlando, Miami, or New Orleans -- face.(CROSSTALK)
LANDRIEU: In other words, this administration did not believe in mass transit. They won't even get people to work on a sunny day, let alone getting them out...
WALLACE: But Senator, there were hundreds of buses sitting in that parking lot. Can I just ask the question?
LANDRIEU: You can, but let me finish, if I could, please.
(CROSSTALK)
WALLACE: Well, look in the picture here. There were hundreds of buses in parking lots. The city and the state.
LANDRIEU: That is underwater. Those...
WALLACE: It wasn't underwater before the...
LANDRIEU: Those buses were underwater. Those buses...
WALLACE: They weren't underwater on Saturday; 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 St. Bernard when underwater and St. Tammany Parish went underwater.
WALLACE: But they weren't underwater on Sunday.
LANDRIEU: And Plaquemines went underwater. And because the mayor evacuated the city, we had the best evacuation between Haley Barbour and Kathleen Blanco of any evacuation I've seen. I'm 50 years old; I've never seen one any better.
You're right. Mass transit would have made absolutely no difference. Mass transit would have provided light rail (or something else) from Kenner and other suburbs into and out of New Orleans. No mass transit, other than the buses that were already there, would have would have gotten people to Baton Rouge, and elsewhere, beyond the danger. p.s. I've been a lurker for years but this is my first post. Hope I'm doing it correctly.