OT: What makes the New Orleans Disaster really scary 11333

Paul Hovnanian P.E.

Hmmmm. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and buttume you have a fuzzy monitor. It was in the NY Times, hardly a conservative publication.

- "Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco told the White House it would have to wait for her decision on its proposal. Then she told them her answer was no. After huddling with her advisers late into the night last Friday and again Saturday morning, she rejected a White House proposal to consolidate the National Guard and active duty troops in the Hurricane Katrina disaster zone under a single commander appointed by the Bush administration."

(After she rejected the initial offer the White House (feds) contacted her asking her to reconsider. Not mentioned in this particular article but it was mentioned in another one that I can't find at the moment.)

Great question.

"Political Issues Snarled Plans For Troop Aid"

- "As New Orleans descended into chaos last week and Louisiana's governor asked for 40,000 soldiers, President Bush's senior advisers debated whether the president should speed the arrival of active-duty troops by seizing control of the hurricane Debt Relief mission from the governor."

"To seize control of the mission, Mr. Bush would have had to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows the president in times of unrest to command active-duty forces into the states to perform law enforcement duties. But decision makers in Washington felt certain that Ms. Blanco would have resisted surrendering control, as Bush administration officials believe would have been required to deploy active-duty combat forces before law and order had been re-established."

"Can you imagine how it would have been perceived if a president of the United States of one party had pre-emptively taken from the female governor of another party the command and control of her forces, unless the security situation made it completely clear that she was unable to effectively execute her command authority and that lawlessness was the inevitable result?" asked one senior administration official, who spoke anonymously because the talks were confidential.

Basically she (Blanco) is a die hard Democrat who resisted any and all help that was offered to her by a Republican President.