Fix is in: A report on the investigation into the Bush government’s bungled response to Hurricane Katrina by Republicans in the House of Representatives will be released this week. Excerpts that have been leaked to the media show that while the report criticizes President Bush, it lays the blame for his government’s response at the feet of Sec. of the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) Michael Chertoff.
The current scapegoat, Michael Brown, who was fired in September because of his negligence in handling the disaster, has provided damning testimony against Chertoff, who was his boss.
You may recall that House Democrats refused to participate officially in the investigation because it was clear from the start that the Republicans’ over-arching motivation was to protect President Bush from blame.
Two Democrats from the region — Reps. Charlie Melancon and William J. Jefferson — did participate unofficially in the investigation, and from their statements it appears that the House GOP did indeed bend over backwards to let the president off the hook:
In their response [to the report], Melancon and Jefferson pointed out that the White House refused to release communications from Brown, who told the House committee and a Senate committee investigating the disaster response that he warned the White House in 30 conversations that he could not establish command and control, that the levees had failed and that he needed help.
“When the White House refused to provide any of these communications, the committee rejected our requests to subpoena them, effectively shielding the White House from scrutiny,” the two Democrats said.
The committee refused to provide a copy of its report to the Democrats, allowing them only to take notes as they read it in the committee staff offices, they said.
Once again, Republicans put their worship of George W. Bush and their quest for poltical power ahead of the national interest.
After Chertoff is gone, the next candidate for blame will probably be President Bush’s assistant Chief of Staff Joe Hagin, who took the most of the 30 calls from Brown that night. Republicans will blame him for not waking the president up to deal with disaster, or not dealing with it in the presidents’ stead.
They can set up all the scapegoats they want, but the buck stops at the top. It may be cold comfort now but whether or not Republicans in charge of federal oversight impute Bush today, history will record that it was the president’s incompetence that created the crisis within the disaster that cost the lives of hundreds of Americans.
