The story from the administration is changing. Now we get an answer to the question my eleven year old nephew asked his mother: why didn’t they send troops to help right away? Rove or Card or someone is now telling the NYT the following:
To seize control of the mission, Mr. Bush would have had to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows the president in times of unrest to command active-duty forces into the states to perform law enforcement duties. But decision makers in Washington felt certain that Governor Blanco would have resisted surrendering control of the military relief mission as Bush Administration officials believe would have been required to deploy active-duty combat forces before law and order had been re-established. While troops can conduct relief missions without the legal authority of the Insurrection Act, Pentagon and military officials say that no active-duty forces could have been sent into the chaos of New Orleans on Wednesday or Thursday without confronting law-and-order challenges.
But just as important to the administration were worries about the message that would have been sent by a president ousting a Southern governor of another party from command of her National Guard, according to administration, Pentagon and Justice Department officials.
“Can you imagine how it would have been perceived if a president of the United States of one party had pre-emptively taken from the female governor of another party the command and control of her forces, unless the security situation made it completely clear that she was unable to effectively execute her command authority and that lawlessness was the inevitable result?” asked one senior administration official, who spoke anonymously because the talks were confidential.
Officials in Louisiana agree that the governor would not have given up control over National Guard troops in her state as would have been required to send large numbers of active-duty soldiers into the area. But they also say they were desperate and would have welcomed assistance by active-duty soldiers.
“I need everything you have got,” Governor Blanco said she told Mr. Bush last Tuesday, when New Orleans flooded. In an interview, she acknowledged that she did not specify what sorts of soldiers. “Nobody told me that I had to request that. I thought that I had requested everything they had,” she said.
Blanco and Bush in my opinion deserve each other. I don’t know why we’re arguing which of them is to blame more. We should be furious at both. They were worried about partisan politics and how things might be “perceived” if they acted to respond to what was by then obviously a monumental crisis. Then there’s this caveat in the anonymous quote: “unless the security situation made it completely clear that she was unable to effectively execute her command authority and that lawlessness was the inevitable result.” Wasn’t that completely clear to many at that point? The first responders were overwhelmed and these politicians were worrying about gender issues and partisan politics? Given the fact that thousands of lives were at stake, “perception” is not or surely should not be an issue. Nor should petty fights over jurisdiction or legal wrangling. Nor should the relative incompetence of governor Blanco. If she was incompetent, then that’s all the more reason for Bush to have over-ruled her. The dead and dying in this country deserved better than this. So much better. And ultimately, with a disaster of this magnitude, it is up to the president to deliver that. He failed. There’s no getting around it. He failed. In the most basic task required of him.
EMAIL OF THE DAY: “You write: ‘What I worry about is the basic security of this country. I don’t trust this administration with it. Do you?’
The basic security of the country is the bottom line for me, too. And I suspect it was for many of the Bush/Cheney voters last November. It was, after all, what Bush’s campaign was based upon – “Vote for us because we can protect you” – and he just demonstrated inexcusable incompetence in the area that is supposed to be his strong suit. Inexcusable because Americans DIED due to this incompetence. Even if the locals and the state did everything you could reasonably expect of them (and clearly they didn’t) you still need the cavalry to swiftly ride in to handle the biggest disaster since at least 1906.
What has this administration been doing for the past four years? The excuses about being too focused on responding to terrorism don’t cut it, because obviously you need the cavalry after a terror attack, too. That’s the scary-as-hell part of all this. The cronyism at FEMA (FEMA, for God’s sake) is a sick joke. And frankly, I’m stunned that not a single prominent Democrat has called for Bush’s resignation. Apparently, the Democrats are just too cowed by their electoral losses, but it’s still stunning. Not that Bush would actually resign, of course, but calling for his resignation would force Republicans up and down the line into the unenviable position of defending this indefensible incompetence. How long do you suppose the GOP would have waited to call for President Kerry’s resignation?
That just might be why the GOP is in power, do you suppose? And al-Qaida is taking notes, no doubt. God help us.”
The Dish 