It's worth mentioning that in '92 that President Bush was accused of not acting promptly enough after Hurricane Andrew hit.
Now whether that was true or not, sometimes the story carries more weight than the truth.
Bush is gonna take a hit on this, I believe. There are already the accusations that federal money was diverted away from improving NO's levee system for other purposes, likely the war.
I can already picture the DNC TV ads during the mid-term elections in '06.
that's just the standard pack of lies from the media. New Orleans and the state of LA is one of the most politically corrupt in the nation. where was the maintenance of the pumps and the levees for the last 50 years? did they have any disaster capabilities of their own? they just sit back, something like this happens, then they want to dump it all on the federal government.
Yes, Sidney Blumenthal already planted that political urban press using the foreign press to launder out the Clinton fingerprints. The way to shoot it down is to explain that the fed money was there but because LA refused to put up any of the state matching funds that were required by law before the fed money could be spent. Since LA made it clear for several years that they weren't going to provide those matches and expected the feds to pay 100%, the money was diverted to other needs, of which there were many.
"Bush is gonna take a hit on this, I believe."
Only if we let it. Word-of-mouth from us and others to counter the spin is important. Given success with things like Rathergate, I truly think we can keep the president from getting railroaded. FWIW, the residents of NO seem to understand their state and local leadership has failed them in a big way.
To emphasize the correctness in saying that politics will make big decisions like this, recall this HISTORICAL FACT!
In 1998, the DoD and the US Army Corps of Engineers drafted a document detailing the fact that New Orleans was protected by levees which were designed to protect N.O. from a LEVEL 3 hurricane. These groups wanted to go into N.O. and assess what needed to be done to improve the levees to at least withstand a LEVEL 4 OR 5 hurricane.
This serious request and supporting information was deemed highly necessary to protect N.O. and was presented in full to the President of the United States for approval of this critical project.
THE REQUEST WAS DENIED BY WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON. For those interested in the details, they are available in the FEDERAL REGISTER as a matter of permanent record.
So, how many more deaths do we attribute to this horrid excuse for a criminal, negligent, incompetent excuse for a human being ???
In summary, politics in critical situations, usually costs lives, it always has.