Blame Bush Blanco
I propose a new principle. When you’re a Republican dealing with a Democrat in a time of crisis, you should adopt the old Reagan model for dealing with the Soviet Union: Trust, but verify.
As Hurricane Katrina loomed over the Gulf Coast, federal and state officials agonized over the threat to levees and lives. Hours after the catastrophic storm hit, Louisiana’s governor believed New Orleans’ crucial floodwalls were still intact.“We keep getting reports in some places that maybe water is coming over the levees,” Gov. Kathleen Blanco said shortly after noon on Aug. 29 — the day the storm hit the Gulf coast.
“We heard a report unconfirmed, I think, we have not breached the levee,” she said on a video of the day’s disaster briefing that was obtained Thursday night by The Associated Press. “I think we have not breached the levee at this time.”
In fact, the National Weather Service received a report of a levee breach and issued a flash-flood warning as early as 9:12 a.m. that day, according to the White House’s formal recounting of events the day Katrina struck.
What did Kathleen Babineaux Blanco know and when did she know it? In all likelihood, she didn’t know anything more than what her advisors were telling her, and those advisors were doing nothing more than relaying information from their subordinates. She in turn relayed what she knew up to the president. What she told him turned out to be wrong. What was the president supposed to do about that?
It was a crisis. These things do happen. Blaming Bush, which so many liberals and the media are content to do, just makes everything worse and gets us no closer to fixing things to prevent another disaster.