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Blaming the State and Local
Sep. 4th, 2005 10:20 amAs most of you probably know, the Bush Administration is blaming Governor Blanco for the magnitude of the New Orleans disaster. Now of course this completely contradicts his earlier excuse (that "no one could have anticipated" last weeks events), and it's such a transparent piece of buck-passing that it's shameful in itself.
However, as hard as it is to accept, I'm not convinced that he's wrong.
I found Billmon's last post chilling, because he reminded us of FEMA's response to hurricanes Charley, Frances and Ivan. As he notes, FEMA acted swiftly and with remarkable efficiency. Billmon's point was that Bush only responds to a disaster when he thinks it's politically advantageous to do so.
That may be true -- and if it is, it's a horrifying prospect for those of us in the blue states -- but another scenario is just as likely, which is that Florida coordinated rescue efforts with the federal authorities much more effectively than Louisiana did, and that is largely responsible for the different outcomes. I'm not convinced either way.
Update: Atrios just post this memorandum, which seems to undermine the White House story. I'll see what happens, and how the debate works out in the next few days.
However, as hard as it is to accept, I'm not convinced that he's wrong.
I found Billmon's last post chilling, because he reminded us of FEMA's response to hurricanes Charley, Frances and Ivan. As he notes, FEMA acted swiftly and with remarkable efficiency. Billmon's point was that Bush only responds to a disaster when he thinks it's politically advantageous to do so.
That may be true -- and if it is, it's a horrifying prospect for those of us in the blue states -- but another scenario is just as likely, which is that Florida coordinated rescue efforts with the federal authorities much more effectively than Louisiana did, and that is largely responsible for the different outcomes. I'm not convinced either way.
Update: Atrios just post this memorandum, which seems to undermine the White House story. I'll see what happens, and how the debate works out in the next few days.
