Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D). Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state's emergency operations center said Saturday.
The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. "Quite frankly, if they'd been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals," said the source, who does not have the authority to speak publicly.
So, instead, the locals took over, and when they failed due to resource mismanagement, they blamed the feds. Sounds more and more like political CYA on the part of Blanco and Mayor Nagin, and look, they refused to cede power for "political reasons." Hmmm....But wait, there is more:
Louisiana did not reach out to a multi-state mutual aid compact for assistance until Wednesday, three state and federal officials said. As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, the senior Bush official said.
So, we have someone who is not willing to let the EVIL Bush administration have the control. What happened to "someone better get down here?" I guess it is someone better get down here, but I don't care who dies as long as I keep my power....
Oh, and for those of you, like that clown Mr. Lewis I highlighted, like Mike Lupica today on the Sports Reporters, who thought Bush did nothing, this article above and the following should tell you otherwise, but of course, the libs won't believe it:
Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding.
Yep, Bush doesn't care about blacks and the poor. Yep, he didn't do anything but watch TV. Yeah, that's the ticket....Sounds to me like he was doing the best he could under the parameters in place....your mileage may vary....
