{"id":13373,"date":"2007-10-26T13:33:10","date_gmt":"2007-10-26T17:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/13373.html"},"modified":"2007-10-26T13:33:10","modified_gmt":"2007-10-26T17:33:10","slug":"bush-visits-california-takes-a-shot-at-louisiana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/bush-visits-california-takes-a-shot-at-louisiana\/","title":{"rendered":"Bush visits California, takes a shot at Louisiana"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s only natural, I suppose, to compare the federal response to Hurricane Katrina and the wildfires in Southern California. The natural disasters aren’t exactly analogous, but they both featured the need for mass evacuations, and a massive government response. (Well, that and the need to use a football stadium as a refuge for the evacuated.)<\/p>\n

Obviously, the response to Katrina was pathetic, and the response to the wildfires has been competent, though as Dan Froomkin noted<\/a> yesterday, “[D]espite all the forceful pronouncements from the White House, it’s not clear that Bush deserves much, if any, of the credit. And there’s no indication that his visit will expiate the Katrina legacy, arguably the second most defining aspect of his presidency.”<\/p>\n

But that apparently hasn’t stopped Bush from taking a cheap shot<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Was there a little dig for the Democrats in Louisiana in President Bush’s words of commendation for Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at the scene of wildfire recovery today?<\/p>\n

“There is no hill he’s not willing to charge, no problem he’s not willing to solve,” Bush said of the California governor. “It makes a significant difference when you have somebody in the statehouse willing to take the lead.”<\/p>\n

Unlike, say, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, who was faulted perhaps as much as the Federal Emergency Management Agency was for inadequate preparation and response for Hurricane Katrina’s assault on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You think?<\/p>\n

It had all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, with Bush effectively re-litigating the Katrina fiasco, and blaming Blanco for not “taking the lead.” Two years later, and the president is still<\/i> trying pass the buck.<\/p>\n

For her part, Blanco said<\/a> in a press statement that it took federal forces nearly a week to arrive in Louisiana after the storm. “I was the only game in town, leading for nearly a week without the president’s help,” Blanco said. “Of all the lessons learned from Katrina now being put into place in California, I would hope the one he would remember is that politics has no place in any disaster.”<\/p>\n

So much for that idea.
\n
\nNot quite done, Bush added:<\/p>\n

“It turns out when the president shows up, so do a lot of other brass,” said Bush, welcoming the director of the National Guard bureau and another military leader. “All of us who represent the federal government” are here to help, Bush said. “That’s exactly what we’ll be doing, and exactly what we’ll continue to do.”<\/p>\n

“We’ve got a four-star general here today. He runs Northcomm,” Bush said. “He’s here to help you.”<\/p>\n

People who need it can get help with “home reprayer \u2013 repair,” said the president, handing out the FEMA phone number and Web-site for victims of the wildfires.<\/p>\n

“Arnold Schwarzenegger is right. These fires are going to go out\u2026 but there are still going to be needs and concerns,” Bush said. “We’re not going to forget you in Washington, D.C.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Funny, Louisiana residents heard the same promise. How’d that work out?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s only natural, I suppose, to compare the federal response to Hurricane Katrina and the wildfires in Southern California. The natural disasters aren’t exactly analogous, but they both featured the need for mass evacuations, and a massive government response. (Well, that and the need to use a football stadium as a refuge for the evacuated.) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}