Well. it seems that Blanco accepted New Mexico's offer of NG assistance already on sunday, but federal red tape was not finished until thursday. This makes no sense at all.
Federals have nothing to do with sending in the gaurd. The guard is under control of the state governors and they have the power to call them out. The governor of LA failed to do so. She had plenty of guardsmen in LA to handle the initial stages but failed to call them out. The other states couldn't do anything until LA actually asked them to come in. The feds couldn't do anything until actually asked to come into LA and help unless they made special declarations and overrode the local government, which is very seldom done, and if Bush had done so he would have been ripped for that also.
The governor of LA standing in front of cameras pitching a fit and crying does not qualify as asking the feds for help.
The sole blame for inaction rests with the governor of LA and the mayor of NO.
We don't know if it was red tape in Washington or a delay by the governor in letting Washington know she wanted the help. I suspect it was the latter, but don't know the answer.
My preliminary conclusions are that the governor was conflicted between her political aspirations and the need to help her people. By trying to retain control - and get the credit - rather than pursue the resources needed, she guaranteed her political future. It seems to me that she demonstrated her amateur status of "I have to do it myself" rather than seeking help when it was/is needed.
Paperwork of that importancee usually gets faxed to speed things along.
Wonder when Blanco faxed the paperwork.
Or does she even know how to use a fax machine?
If it is a paperwork snafu, the solution is get rid of the red tape. Allow troops to go into action immediately.
The problem with the red tape was probably on her end, not Washington's. It probably took three days for them to get her out from under her desk and get her hand steady enough to write her name on the request forms.