July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
Bush bashers (9/26/05)
Letters to the editor
By To the editor: -
To the editor:
On Monday, Sept. 12, 2005 Jacquelyn Mitchard and J.R. both engaged in Bush bashing that missed the real point of the issues involved.
J.R. asked “will we learn from this experience?” and concluded that Bush appointed an incompetent FEMA director and the Senate let him. The fact is that the man was competent enough to do a decent job handling natural disasters up until now.
Given that we can never depend on any politician to appoint the best person available for any job, the real question we need to answer is why Brown failed so badly this time. And, in fact we already have the answer.
Confronted with an incompetent Mayor and Governor he didn’t know how to cut through the red tape or get around the legal restrictions that Congress had put in his way. Until we come up with a plan to deal with these issues we have no way of knowing if even the best man in the country could have done any better.
While J.R. asked a legitimate question, J.M. gave us nothing but a list of questions that were little better than innuendo and dropped Bush’s name often enough to insinuate that everything was his fault.
She tells us that Louisiana Congressmen repeatedly sought to restore funds to shore up levees that Bush diverted to Iraq.
She doesn’t tell us that Bush spent more than Clinton on the levees or that the few millions involved would have made no difference. She overlooks the fact that these same Louisiana Congressmen spent billions on pork barrel projects around Louisiana that could have gone to Levees or that they never asked for a project that would protect New Orleans from a Cat 5 storm.
The real questions we need to ask are these:
Why didn’t the Mayor of New Orleans use available buses to evacuate the poor or at least park them on high ground for future use? Why did the Louisiana Department of Homeland Security refuse to let the Red Cross deliver food and water that was on trucks just outside the City for three days? Why didn’t the Governor of Louisiana send in the State National Guard on a timely basis? The State Guard still refuses to disclose when she finally gave the order. Why did the Governor refuse for so long to federalize the situation so the Federal Government could legally take over the city? And how can we or should we change the laws to let the federal government take over more easily when the state and local government completely falls apart?
How much of the delay was actually caused by federal officials?
How many people died because of these failures?
It might just be that by resigning and making himself the scapegoat for everyone else’s incompetence that FEMA director Brown proved himself a better man than most of the other so called leaders involved in this fiasco.
On Tuesday Cohn and Clift accused Bush and Rove of a “sordid” attack on state and local officials without bothering to note that it was in response to over a week of extreme Bush bashing by prominent democrats. Leonard Pitts wrote “We all need some answers.” At first it looked balanced until the second half became an attack on Bush and FEMA.
Along the way he trashes Bush for wanting to investigate what went wrong and praises Congress for wanting to investigate why the levees were never improved.
Does anyone really believe the Congressional report will actually say “because Congress never voted to spend the money?”
Wednesday we were treated to a long winded college level dissertation by Buckley explaining why Bush is not a racist.
John Leo gave a reasonably balanced account of the problems on Thursday.
On Friday Richard Reeves laid the blame on Bush, Bush and Reagan for believing that government should be smaller. Apparently he has never bothered to notice just how much G.W. Bush has increased government spending.
And on Saturday Pitts and Clift both went after Bush one more time.
The grand total for the week is Bush 1, anti-Bush 7, and fair and balanced 1.
Strange that the polls still show considerably more Americans blame state and local failures rather than Bush for the initial problems after Katrina.
Stephen Erwin
Portland
[[In-content Ad]]
On Monday, Sept. 12, 2005 Jacquelyn Mitchard and J.R. both engaged in Bush bashing that missed the real point of the issues involved.
J.R. asked “will we learn from this experience?” and concluded that Bush appointed an incompetent FEMA director and the Senate let him. The fact is that the man was competent enough to do a decent job handling natural disasters up until now.
Given that we can never depend on any politician to appoint the best person available for any job, the real question we need to answer is why Brown failed so badly this time. And, in fact we already have the answer.
Confronted with an incompetent Mayor and Governor he didn’t know how to cut through the red tape or get around the legal restrictions that Congress had put in his way. Until we come up with a plan to deal with these issues we have no way of knowing if even the best man in the country could have done any better.
While J.R. asked a legitimate question, J.M. gave us nothing but a list of questions that were little better than innuendo and dropped Bush’s name often enough to insinuate that everything was his fault.
She tells us that Louisiana Congressmen repeatedly sought to restore funds to shore up levees that Bush diverted to Iraq.
She doesn’t tell us that Bush spent more than Clinton on the levees or that the few millions involved would have made no difference. She overlooks the fact that these same Louisiana Congressmen spent billions on pork barrel projects around Louisiana that could have gone to Levees or that they never asked for a project that would protect New Orleans from a Cat 5 storm.
The real questions we need to ask are these:
Why didn’t the Mayor of New Orleans use available buses to evacuate the poor or at least park them on high ground for future use? Why did the Louisiana Department of Homeland Security refuse to let the Red Cross deliver food and water that was on trucks just outside the City for three days? Why didn’t the Governor of Louisiana send in the State National Guard on a timely basis? The State Guard still refuses to disclose when she finally gave the order. Why did the Governor refuse for so long to federalize the situation so the Federal Government could legally take over the city? And how can we or should we change the laws to let the federal government take over more easily when the state and local government completely falls apart?
How much of the delay was actually caused by federal officials?
How many people died because of these failures?
It might just be that by resigning and making himself the scapegoat for everyone else’s incompetence that FEMA director Brown proved himself a better man than most of the other so called leaders involved in this fiasco.
On Tuesday Cohn and Clift accused Bush and Rove of a “sordid” attack on state and local officials without bothering to note that it was in response to over a week of extreme Bush bashing by prominent democrats. Leonard Pitts wrote “We all need some answers.” At first it looked balanced until the second half became an attack on Bush and FEMA.
Along the way he trashes Bush for wanting to investigate what went wrong and praises Congress for wanting to investigate why the levees were never improved.
Does anyone really believe the Congressional report will actually say “because Congress never voted to spend the money?”
Wednesday we were treated to a long winded college level dissertation by Buckley explaining why Bush is not a racist.
John Leo gave a reasonably balanced account of the problems on Thursday.
On Friday Richard Reeves laid the blame on Bush, Bush and Reagan for believing that government should be smaller. Apparently he has never bothered to notice just how much G.W. Bush has increased government spending.
And on Saturday Pitts and Clift both went after Bush one more time.
The grand total for the week is Bush 1, anti-Bush 7, and fair and balanced 1.
Strange that the polls still show considerably more Americans blame state and local failures rather than Bush for the initial problems after Katrina.
Stephen Erwin
Portland
[[In-content Ad]]
Top Stories
9/11 NEVER FORGET Mobile Exhibit
Chartwells marketing
September 17, 2024 7:36 a.m.
Events
250 X 250 AD