Day: January 21, 2007

Ex-FEMA Head Says Bush Targeted Democratic Louisiana Governor

Trish

If Michael Brown is lying, he sure is good at it. Despite White House denials (by a third-tier spokesperson), Brown’s latest tidbits about the handling of Hurricane Katrina — and taking over Louisiana operations — sound awfully credible.

“Certain people in the White House were thinking we had to federalize Louisiana because she’s a white, female Democratic governor and we have a chance to rub her nose in it”

Some in the White House suggested only Louisiana should be federalized because it was run by a Democrat, Gov. Kathleen Blanco, Brown told a group of graduate students at a lecture on politics and emergency management at Metropolitan College of New York.

Brown said he had recommended to President Bush that all 90,000 square miles along the Gulf Coast affected by the hurricane be federalized, making the federal government in charge of all agencies responding to the disaster.

“Unbeknownst to me, certain people in the White House were thinking we had to federalize Louisiana because she’s a white, female Democratic governor and we have a chance to rub her nose in it,” he said…

Blanco reacted sharply on hearing what Brown had said.

“This is exactly what we were living but could not bring ourselves to believe. Karl Rove was playing politics while our people were dying,” Blanco said through a spokeswoman, referring to President Bush’s top political strategist. “The federal effort was delayed, and now the public knows why. It’s disgusting.”

Gov. Richardson Accused of ‘Lewd,’ ‘Demeaning’ Behavior Toward Women

Jon Ponder
Rumors have long swept around Santa Fe that Bill Richardson makes a constant festive joke out of demeaning women.

That didn’t take long. In discussing Gov. Bill Richardson’s announcement that he was running for president, I said yesterday that he had more experience than the senators in the race “and (probably) the least amount of baggage.”

Today I read an article by Steve Clemons, editor of the Washington Note — and whose progressives bona fides are in good order — accusing Richardson of inappropriate behavior around women:

Have you behaved inappropriately or not in public settings with female members of your government administration, jokingly or not? Have you gestured to female public servants and political appointees — who work as colleagues with you — and made lewd gestures, specifically pointing to them and then pointing at your crotch with a room full of media and other politicos there in the room?

I ask this not to demean or undermine Richardson.

I ask it because I was not in the room when this particular incident occurred but many others were — and rumors have long swept around Santa Fe that Bill Richardson makes a constant festive joke out of demeaning women. These incidents don’t have to do with the comments by Lt. Governor Diane Denish that Richardson is a “touchy” and “feely” Governor. They have to do with questions about a far more crude kind of gesture that demeans professional women.

These concerns I have heard may be completely contrived, but after speaking with several senior level New Mexico officials, my sense is that it needs to at a minimum be addressed by the Governor who wants to be President. Some suggest that Richardson “can’t stop himself” or “doesn’t even realize what he is doing” or thinks that “this sort of thing is part of New Mexico’s political scene.”

One accuser is the lieutenant governor of New Mexico, Diane Denish. It appears the Richardson campaign could be putting out a fire before it puts out its shingle.