Michael Chertoff came on Meet the Press and handed Russert his lunch. Russert can't be as stupid as he sounded. The contrived indignation over thousands of people (blacks),left for dead! Chertoff reminded him feds can ask, plead with local and state authorities for permission to take over, which they did, but the feds' role is to support local and state efforts until given permission to move in whole hog.
Russert then demanded: how can you possibly be prepared for an other attack here, perhaps nuclear, and Chertoff said, we have to deal with the situation as it is, but think and plan ahead, not dwell on the past. Dwelling on the past wastes energy and brains better spent on preparing for the future. He hinted that he wouldn't be wasting any more time on foolish interviews where he had to answer stupid questions.
Chertoff was extremely impressive, as always.
Just remembered another bit between Russert and Chertoff. Russert sneered that they'd known for ten years that NO ws a soup bowl and not prepared for a really bad hurricane. And Chertoff said, yes, local and state govt. had had ten years to upgrade and hadn't done so. Chertoff gave chapter and verse of when and how the feds begged state and local officials to evacuate, early, early on. The levee break was after the storm had passed, and by then the mayor and gov. woke up to the front page of the Time Picayune, trumpeting: 'We Dodged the Bullet'. Those pictures of hundreds of school buses sitting in water should haunt the dems. But it won't. When the truth won't serve, they go with the big lie.
Want to bet?
"Russert can't be as stupid as he sounded."
Well, yes, he can. And is.