Agreed. Yes, he's a scapegoat. While things did certainly go wrong, and I have no doubt some of it must have been on his shouldners, a lot of it was local incompetence and a lot was the nature of the institution of FEMA and Homeland Security. I always thought that they did a remarkable job. I saw people getting airlifted out of there within several days and relocated. I saw on the news last night that many families have not gotten temporary housing from the tsunami in Indonesia. This kind of event is devasting and I still think we overall did a decent job. Not perfect by any means. But competent. And it could have gone a lot better if the elected officials in LA had done their job.
I agree. Did you notice that Nagin testified that it was the local FEMA man who first informed him of the breach in the levies? The communication limitations and logistical obstacles were huge and delayed assessment of the scope of the disaster and also delivery of aid. Maybe, putting a TV man at the Superdome demanding help like a crying baby was not the best way to cover a story when emergency responders were fighting felled tres and collapsed freeways to get in. There was a day when we would have recognized the heros.