Part-Time Pundit: MoveOn Watch: Don't Let Republicans Point out Failures with Locals during Katrina, That Hurts Our Chances to Blame Bush!

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September 8, 2005

MoveOn Watch: Don't Let Republicans Point out Failures with Locals during Katrina, That Hurts Our Chances to Blame Bush!

MoveOn is outraged. They're steaming that federal officials have the unmitigated gall to point out that city officials should have used their own buses to get people out when they could, or that 2/3rds of the police force walked off the job leaving the city in chaos (earning a free trip to Vegas), or that Gov. Blanco sat on a Presidential request to evacuate and then waited 24 hours to approve the federal response. FEMA has some improvement to do, yes. But the local officials utterly failed their people. Mayor Nagin could have used the buses to get people out, he could have ordered the evacuation 36 hours when the emergency was declared AS HE SHOULD HAVE. FEMA can be faulted for not having the best response to the crisis, but the locals made the crisis happen. And MoveOn is pissed that people dare point out who is REALLY to blame here. It hurts their talking points.

Here's MoveOn's E-mail:
==============================================
President Bush and Republican leaders are trying to shift blame for the poor rescue and relief effort to the victims of Hurricane Katrina including state and local officials. Don't let them get away with that.

Sign a petition today demanding the president stop the blame-shifting and get to work helping Hurricane victims. Petition delivery will start tomorrow in Washington, D.C.
Dear MoveOn member,

It has been a week since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, leveled New Orleans and left hundreds of thousands of Americans homeless. We saw the best of America during that time—millions of people stepped forward to offer help. Meanwhile, the Bush administration failed at their most important job: keeping America safe. The federal effort was too little, too late and it is now becoming obvious that hundreds or even thousands of people died as a result.

Then, starting Friday, in a Karl Rove-led campaign, the White House started to blame state and local officials and even the victims who were stranded without transportation when the Hurricane arrived. Sign our petition demanding that the Bush administration stop blaming victims, including state and local officials, and focus on helping them.

We'll begin to deliver the earliest signatures to the White House tomorrow, Thursday, when a delegation of MoveOn members from New Orleans, who are now homeless and will come to Washington and join other MoveOn members outside the White House at a petition delivery and protest. The petition is one important way to demonstrate that the public wants more action to help hurricane victims and is getting angry about this blame-shifting game the Bush administration is playing.

It is important that the Bush administration not get away with shifting their responsibility to local officials. Here is what actually happened.

Timeline

Friday, Aug. 26: Gov. Kathleen Blanco declares a state of emergency in Louisiana and requests troop assistance.

Saturday, Aug. 27: Gov. Blanco asks for federal state of emergency. A federal emergency is declared giving federal officials the authority to get involved.

Sunday, Aug. 28: Mayor Ray Nagin orders mandatory evacuation of New Orleans. President Bush warned of Levee failure by National Hurricane Center. National Weather Service predicts area will be "uninhabitable" after Hurricane arrives. First reports of water toppling over the levee appear in local paper.

Monday, Aug. 29: Levee breaches and New Orleans begins to fill with water, Bush travels to Arizona and California to discuss Medicare. FEMA chief finally responds to federal emergency, dispatching employees but giving them two days to arrive on site.

Tuesday, Aug. 30: Mass looting reported, security shortage cited in New Orleans. Pentagon says that local authorities have adequate National Guard units to handle hurricane needs despite governor's earlier request. Bush returns to Crawford for final day of vacation. TV coverage is around-the-clock Hurricane news.

Wednesday, Aug. 31: Tens of thousands trapped in New Orleans including at Convention Center and Superdome in "medieval" conditions. President Bush finally returns to Washington to establish a task force to coordinate federal response. Local authorities run out of food and water supplies.

Thursday, Sept. 1: New Orleans descends into anarchy. New Orleans Mayor issues a "Desperate SOS" to federal government. Bush claims nobody predicted the breach of the levees despite multiple warnings and his earlier briefing.

Friday, Sept. 2: Karl Rove begins Bush administration campaign to blame state and local officials—despite their repeated requests for help. Bush stages a photo-op—diverting Coast Guard helicopters and crew to act as backdrop for cameras. Levee repair work orchestrated for president's visit and White House press corps.

Saturday, Sept. 3: Bush blames state and local officials. Senior administration official (possibly Rove) caught in a lie claiming Gov. Blanco had not declared a state of emergency or asked for help.

Monday, Sept. 5: New Orleans officials begin to collect their dead.

(Adapted from: Katrina Timeline, http://thinkprogress.org/katrina-timeline/ )

Those are the facts. State and local officials BEGGED for help as people in their city suffered. The Bush administration didn't get the job done and when their failure became an embarrassment they attacked those asking for help.

The New York Times reported on Friday that Karl Rove and White House communications director Dan Bartlett "rolled out a plan...to contain the political damage from the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina." The core of the strategy is "to shift the blame away from the White House and toward officials of New Orleans and Louisiana."

This is the same pattern of smearing that the Bush political machine has used for a decade. John McCain and John Kerry had their war records smeared. The CIA cover of Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife was blown after he criticized the Bush Iraq policy. Now, Hurricane victims are attacked when the Bush administration failed to do their duty to help them.

It isn't just the Bush administration. Republican Senator Rick Santorum blamed victims in a TV interview and House Speaker Dennis Hastert suggested New Orleans should not be rebuilt.

We can't let them get away with this. Please sign our petition today and do your part.

This is just the first step. We need to continue to help those in need directly and make sure our government does their job. There will be a time to figure out who specifically to blame and what to change. In the meantime, the Bush administration needs to get to work helping those in need.

Thanks for all you do,

–Tom, Tanya, Joan, Jennifer and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team
Wednesday, September 7th, 2005

P.S. Check out these links for more on the Hurricane relief efforts.

Katrina Timeline, ThinkProgress.org http://thinkprogress.org/katrina-timeline/

Editorial: No time for turf wars. The Times-Picayune, September 7, 2005. http://www.moveon.org/r?r=869

Editorial blasts federal response. CNN, September 4, 2005. http://www.moveon.org/r?r=870

The big disconnect on New Orleans. CNN, September 2, 2005. http://www.moveon.org/r?r=871

PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

Posted by John Bambenek at September 8, 2005 8:10 AM

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Comments

I found this letter funny in that I have read the timeline (I think I found it here, can't remember) but they have edited it just enough to make it look as if the locals were actually doing something. They *did* put "adapted" in the footnote but I wonder if any of their usual readers will even know what that means.

Posted by: she at September 8, 2005 9:07 AM

I haven't been satisfied with FEMA's response, but the typical liberal attitude to "blame it all on Bush" is exposed for its absudity here. A physician friend of mine went with about 100 other doctors to help out in New Orleans, but was turned back because Blanco was not allowing doctors who were not licensed in LA in! This order has since been rescinded, but it goes to show just how inept the local government has been in handling this crisis.

Posted by: Skin at September 8, 2005 9:21 AM

Moveon.org needs to move on. At a time like this, we don't need their divisive babble.

Posted by: cube at September 8, 2005 11:12 AM

Suuure, guys. Bush reacted in SUCH a quick manner. The simple fact is that Bush is the one in charge. That's where the buck stops, first, last, and always. He is responsible for disaster-relief FUBARs just as we've held previous presidents responsible for similar events.

If you want to do a comparison between him, and ...oh, ANY other presidential response to hurricanes, just look around. The evidence is clear.

RESPONSE:

Let's go back to civics class, we're a union of 50 soveriegn states, remember? Let's take a look at the facts, the STATE is in charge during any and all emergency operations while the state government remains in existence.

Posted by: sara at September 8, 2005 12:06 PM

Of course the liberals are blaming Bush and his crooked group of PNAC (Partnership for a New American Century) lackies for the mishandling of the relief efforts for this disaster.

Why? Put simply enough for the Right-to-Life morons, and the Neo-Con Cronies to understand: The US had relief food and water to the victims of the sunami, within 2 days, and they are clear across the globe. While they could not get any relief to their own backyard, in a timely fashion. 5 days is not timely when you are starving or suffering from dehydration, or dysentary.

The bottom line is simple, one of the major reasons that there is a federal government is so that states are not acting entirely on their own, otherwise the US would be more like Africa, a disparate group of countries that can barely work together to help out their neighbors, even in the evnet of extreme emergencies.

I am not a christian, and as such, do not believe in heaven or hell, but if I am wrong about that, and I do allow for that possibility, I merely hope I am there to greet the people involved in this administration, as they report for their well deserved eternity in Hell.

Posted by: Shawn at September 8, 2005 3:48 PM

That's what I love--they can't refute what they're saying with facts, so they haveta call you names like "moron." That's classy. It also tends to preclude what would be called by the educated world "diologue" or "discussion" or "debate." I thought we were a society that valued both free expression and the free exchange of ideas. My bad.

IMHO... the govenor of LA has displayed total incomptency. She was in a leadership position, and she failed to lead and people died because of it. Presidents, no matter whether they're democrat or republican are not able to micromanage every decision that goes on in a state or local government. That is why there are such things as state and local governments--to take care of things like this, or in the event of a disaster, be the first respondants. National guardsmen are at the beck and call of the govenor of their state.

Posted by: battybeyond at September 9, 2005 8:12 PM

I heard three young men account how they were turned back from New Orleans by the National Guard until they liberated some press passed to gain entry. That sure sounds like Governor Blanco was stopping potential aid workers from entering New Orleans. I have heard of repeated bureaucratic snafus that have turned aid planes back to Germany because of worries of Mad Cow disease and held up funding for rescuers. Anyone who listens to move on is most likely a fanatic or a fool anyways. Either way I hope they become wise.

Posted by: Kerwin at September 11, 2005 2:24 AM

Boy, that makes me really happy I quit working with them.

Moveon.org: Take any event and turn it into votes for the dems.

Posted by: Abbie Gonzalez at September 11, 2005 7:51 PM