Top Republicans Skewer Bush on Katrina Response

The Bush Administration’s handling of disaster relief in the wake of Hurricane Katrina has been so inept that even Republicans are now criticizing their Dear Leader:

  • “It’s impossible to defend something like this happening in America,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. “If we can’t respond faster than this to an event we saw coming across the Gulf for days, then why do we think we’re prepared to respond to a nuclear or biological attack?”
  • “We intend to demand answers as to how this immense failure occurred, but our immediate focus must and will be on what Congress can do to help the rescue and emergency operations that are ongoing. It is also our responsibility to investigate the lack of preparedness and inadequate response to this terrible storm. [It is] increasingly clear that serious shortcomings in preparedness and response have hampered relief efforts at a critical time,” said Republican senator Susan Collins of Maine, chair of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, in a statement with the ranking member, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a Democrat and Crypto-Republican from Connecticut.
  • “No one can be happy with the kind of response which we’ve seen in New Orleans,” said Republican Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, also characterizing the sluggish mobilization as an “embarassment.”
  • Closeted gay GOP Rep. Mark Foley of Florida called upon Bush to recall National Guardsmen stationed in Iraq whose homes and families were in the path of Katrina’s destruction.
  • Republican senator from Louisiana David Vitter, speaking to reporters at the emergency response center in Baton Rouge, said he gave the federal government a grade “F” for its response to the disaster so far.
  • “What it reminded me of the other day is ‘Baghdad Bob’ saying there are no Americans at the airport,” said Rich Galen, a Republican consultant in Washington. He was referring to Saddam Hussein’s reality-challenged minister of information who denied the existence of U.S. troops in the Iraqi capital. (After top Bush administration officials congratulated each other for jobs well done and spoke of water, food and troops pouring into the ravaged city when television pictures told a different story.)

There will undoubtedly be more criticism from the president’s party as the death toll from Katrina mounts – Senator Vitter predicted that there were 10,000 dead in the wake of the storm. – and the number of U.S. soldiers killed and wounded in Iraq continues to rise.

And then there’s the price of gas – going up, up, up…

Halliburton Hired to Repair Hurricane Damage in Gulf

This just in:

The Navy has hired Houston-based Halliburton Co. to restore electric power, repair roofs and remove debris at three naval facilities in Mississippi damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

Halliburton subsidiary KBR will also perform damage assessments at other naval installations in New Orleans as soon as it is safe to do so.

KBR was assigned the work under a “construction capabilities” contract awarded in 2004 after a competitive bidding process. The company is not involved in the Army Corps of Engineers’ effort to repair New Orleans’ levees.

Mr. Bill Knew the Levees Were Vulnerable, Why Didn’t Mr. Bush?

Craig Crawford:

Before we buy the claims of politicians that there was no way to predict or prevent the sinking of New Orleans, it’s worth asking how Mr. Bill knew? That’s right, the hapless clay figure once featured on NBC’s Saturday Night Live starred in a prophetic public service announcement earlier this year to raise awareness about the environmental conditions that could lead to a hurricane drowning the city.

Go HERE to see the video.

Katrina Ruins 9/11 Iraq Fest

It’s an ill wind that blows no good. Maybe the winds of Katrina will do what four years of our logic hasn’t done.

What a difference four years makes.

Republicans were all geared up to commemorate the four-year anniversary of 9/11, and Katrina went and spoiled it. Because what’s the point of showing shots of valiant rescues in New York from back then when the news is full of failed rescues in Louisiana and Mississippi now?

There goes a perfectly good opportunity to pump up the faithful by blurring the line between 9/11 and Iraq, something the Bush administration desperately needs to do. Damn, I hate it when that happens.

What else is different today? Well, Rudolph Guiliani isn’t around to show Georgie how to be stoic yet heroic, for one thing. What Bush really needs to do is send Rudi on a tour of the hurricane sites. He could attend funerals, once people are able to hold them, and be in weddings, once anyone can even think of such things.

Congress isn’t joining hands and singing feelings – I mean, the national anthem – either. Instead, partisanism is at an all-time high, at one-more-degree-and-we’ll-have-civil-war highs to be exact. No one can say or do anything, no matter how noble or innocent, without being accused of playing politics. Which everyone is.

How did we get here? What’s happened to our country? The answer, to me, is four years of George Bush, Karl Rove, Donald “It’s Not Torture If We Do It” Rumsfeld, and Dickface Cheney. It’s people like Colin Powell lying then leaving anyway and being replaced by people who continue to lie but stay on. And it’s all of us who have have failed to mount an effective counter-campaign against these miserable excuses.

It’s an ill wind that blows no good. Maybe the winds of Katrina will do what four years of our logic hasn’t done. Maybe the disaster of Katrina will breathe life into the loyal opposition. But first, we gotta get those folks some help. We are still that nation that stood together four years ago. We just need to remember that.

If Osama Had Blown Up the Levees Would the Response Have Been the Same?

Rove would have made sure the poor people were bussed out of downtown right away — not out of compassion but because their presence would have been politically inexpedient with cameras around.

As Atrios has noted: “Four years of hearing that ‘9/11 changed everything’ as a justification for literally everything, we know now these incompetent fuckers couldn’t run a lemonade stand let alone defend the country or deal with a disaster.”

This begs a question: Would our government have deployed itself differently this week if terrorists had blown up the levees in New Orleans last Monday?

Staging such an attack would certainly have been possible. It was common knowledge that the levees were vulnerable — despite Mr. Bush’s statement otherwise — and the logistics of exploding Oklahoma City style truck bombs next to the berms and canals would seem to be easier than highjacking jetliners and flying them into buildings.

If Osama had blown up the levees, first off, Bush’s vacation would have ended abruptly on Monday, and he would have flown into the disaster scene right away to take charge. (None of the flitting around the country like a scaredy-pants school boy like he did on 9/11.) In Bushspeak, of course, “taking charge” means engaging in photo-ops and reciting Rovian speeches filled with bellicose resolve and determination.

Even before Mr. Bush was done in New Orleans on Monday, every department of the federal government would have been mobilized and resources would have poured in.

And then Bush would have announced an invasion of either Iran or Syria — or both.

Why the difference? Why was the government’s response so inadequate and sluggish? The answer is politics, of course.

[…]

Bayou Buzz Reports Hastert AWOL on Relief Vote

Dennis the Menace Hastert must have really meant it when he said rebuilding New Orleans is optional. Bayou Buzz reports the Speaker is planning to attend a Republican fundraiser rather than showing up for an emergency vote on aid to Katrina victims.

Hastert AWOL During House Katrina Vote

Republican Congressman and Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert who set off a firestorm on Thursday when he questioned the need to rebuild New Orleans might be making another major bonehead decision.

The legislation passed by the U.S. Senate of 10.5 billion to rebuild the Gulf Coast and New Orleans is moving to the House. Guess who will not be there when the vote occurs? Dennis Hastert. He will be at a fundraiser.

Think of the importance of his presence to lead this legislation. Instead, he is playing partisan politics—raising money for his party or for a fellow republican. Is this a show of leadership?

See update of this story GOP House Leader Denies Advocating Bulldozing New Orleans Despite Published Record of Statements.

Hey Mary Landrieu: You Go, Girl!

Seeing Anderson Cooper lose it with Sen. Mary Landrieu yesterday helped crystallize some things for me. Cooper, who was obviously distraught and even close to tears, was in full blame mode, focusing all his emotion at Landrieu.

Did she try to cut him off, to out-shout him? Did she pull a peevish Bob Novak and storm off camera? No, she simply remained in gratitude, waited quietly for her turn to speak, affirmed his feelings, and reminded him that this is her home, her loss. That’s why she wants to fix it.

Amazingly, Landrieu is taking heat for this, and the worst part is she is taking it from our team. As Landrieu said, there is plenty of blame to go around and plenty of time later to assign it. Right now, we need to focus on solutions.

None of this is different from our own lives. We all know people who are perpetual victims, taking no personal responsibility, attributing every situation to what someone else made them do. And we know others, like Landrieu, who own their behavior and stay focused on doing the next right thing.

Trying to find somebody whose fault this can all be led some people yesterday to criticize Condoleezza Rice for shoe shopping in New York while people suffered in Louisiana and Mississippi. Well guess what, kids? I jogged while those people suffered. I surfed the internet while they suffered. I ate a nice lunch and quaffed a glass of wine while they were dying. Didn’t you? And don’t tell me there was more Rice could have done personally. There was way more I could have done personally.

Bush was wrong to divert our current and future resources to his idiotic war on terror. He was wrong to deny global warming and allow wetlands to be drained. But I have a lot of neighbors who believe in global warming and drive Lincoln Navigators anyway. I know a lot of people who bought a house in a development built in former wetlands. So exactly how are we morally superior?

My PR colleague, Buck, yesterday said this is the time for Democrats to show some leadership. I believe that’s what Mary Landrieu was doing. But like good Democrats, we stand in a circle, guns blasting. Enough already. Who we are doesn’t depend on who they are. We can do the right thing, whether Bush wants us to or not.

Full transcript of the interview HERE.

Ultra-Rightwing Washington Times Eviscerates Bush’s Reaction to Deep South Disaster

The owner of the Washington Times is the Rev. Sun Yung Moon and his Unification Church, a neofascist rightwing cult whose adherents were once known as Moonies. The following was edited by the paper’s editorial director, Tony Blankley, a conservative tool whose bona fides include working in the Reagan White House and serving as Newt Gingrich’s press secretary:

Troops are finally moving into New Orleans in realistic numbers, and it’s past time. What took the government so long? The thin veneer separating civilization and chaos, which we earlier worried might collapse in the absence of swift action, has collapsed.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has suspended his police department’s search-and-rescue operations to struggle with looters. Health-care centers remain under siege. The evacuation of thousands of refugees from the squalor and stink of the Superdome, inexcusably delayed, was delayed further when someone fired on a military helicopter … If this is not hell, it is close to it.

This horror will not subside with the flood. The government must treat the battlefield of Katrina as it would any other field of engagement: Protect and provide for the innocent and eliminate the enemy, and do it now, before we lose New Orleans. Send the 40,000 troops Gov. Kathleen Blanco has requested…

We expected to see, many hours ago, the president we saw standing atop the ruin of the World Trade Center, rallying a dazed country to action. We’re pleased he finally caught a ride home from his vacation, but he risks losing the one trait his critics have never dented: His ability to lead, and be seen leading.

Katrina: While Bush Dawdles Big Media Donates

In the aftermath of Katrina, the nation’s largest media conglomerates are stepping up and donating big bucks toward hurricane relief, even as Congress mosies back into session and George Bush characterizes the feeble federal response as “unacceptable.”

According to Variety, media giants are funneling millions into the effort:

Walt Disney contributed $1 million donation to the American Red Cross for immediate relief efforts, $1 million for children’s charities targeted at rebuilding efforts , and $500,000 for volunteer centers.

Viacom is planning a $1 million cash donation and a worldwide employee matching gift program directed to the American Red Cross.

MTV, VH1 and CMT were expected to announce a star-studded benefit for disaster relief.

Time Warner, the world’s biggest media conglomconglom, said it will start by matching $1 million in employee contributions to the American Red Cross.

Turner Broadcasting is making a separate immediate donation of $250,000 to the Red Cross.

The Red Cross has called its current efforts the “largest mobilization in the history of the organization,” with more than 45,000 people in some 250 shelters across the area. It has set up 15 emergency kitchens capable of feeding 350,000 people.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Red Cross had raised more than $20 million — about on par with the tsunami relief efforts in late 2004.