Let's assume that Governor Blanco was for one reason or another unable to act and coordinate the request for New Mexico NG federalization with NM Governor. Meanwhile, anyone watching CNN early wednesday saw people dehydrating on the streets of New Orleans and city descending into chaos. The White House was surely aware of what was happening. Couldn't the White House have a fricking telephone call with the governors down in Louisiana, New Mexico etc. and agree with them to federalize the necessary NG units and send them their way?
If it turns out that the bumbling idiots at state and federal levels couldn't have the fricking paperwork put in order IMMEDIATELY, and this was the reason for the delay in troop deployment, well, I don't know what to say.
I'm not necessarily interested in whose 'fault' the situation was, I'm only commenting on the evident inablity of the government to get even the simplest things done in a common sense manner.
The hard part about handling natural disasters should be logistics and similar things not the inability of the top-level decision makers to push the god-d*mn button on time!
You can't blame this on "paperwork" - any necessary documentation could be handled in good time, as circumstances permitted. All that was necessary was for Governor Blanco to call President Bush and say: "Mr. President, as Governor of Louisiana I hereby authorize and request that you provide federal National Guard assistance to Louisiana." That's it.
We're very much on the same page, except I suggest that Bush had to have known how this would turn out in the hands of idiots like Blanco and Nagin before this became a crisis and should have had everything set up to come in and take control. He should have gotten pre-clearance, so to speak, from the governors telling them that he was 99.9% sure that the NG troops would be needed to assist NO/LA and he should have set up plans for evacuations and such. He should not have assumed that Blanco and Nagin would do anything right.
"Look, this entire situation borders on the ridiculous. "
Yes.
"Let's assume that Governor Blanco was for one reason or another unable to act.... "
And THAT is where you diverged from reality.
It was HER responsibility to activate troops in her state and request troops from neighboring states.
NOT the President.
It is NOT up to the President to do Blano's job FOR her.
As it sits, the President already did one end run around Blanco and Nagins to tell people to get out.
And some whined about THAT.
It appears that for some people, the President can never do anything right.