Posted on 09/03/2005 5:59:06 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and a number of President Bush's other top advisers met Saturday black leaders amid allegations that indifference to black suffering slowed response to Hurricane Katrina.
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, D-Md., past chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said he believes the administration was partly interested in offering assurances that any missteps in getting relief to the victims — many of them black — would be corrected.
"I think a lot of people in the African American community — and others, by the way — share Bush's view that the results of his efforts have been unacceptable," Cummings said after the meeting at the White House.
"I think they wanted to make sure that the leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Urban League and the NAACP knew that they were very sensitive to trying to make sure that things went right from here on out. And I think they wanted to try to dispel any kind of notions that the administration did not care about African American people — or anyone else."
But Cummings said that while the race issue was discussed, the issue consumed only about seven minutes of the two-hour meeting. "This was a where-do-we-go-from-here meeting," he said. "We were more concerned about how do we get them the resources that they need."
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the group discussed how to evacuate, save and sustain lives, temporary housing and ways to work with community groups and faith-based groups to handle long-term needs of the displaced.
In addition to Chertoff, he said the other participants were Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson, White House domestic policy adviser Claude Allen, NAACP President Bruce Gordon and National Urban League President Marc Morial, a former mayor of New Orleans.
The current chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., participated by phone.
Jesse Jackson and some black lawmakers have said that racial injustice was at the root of the disaster response. While agreeing that the black community had been heavily affected, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the administration's top-ranking black, has disputed that claim.
"Americans don't want to see Americans suffer," Rice said in an interview Friday on American Urban Radio Networks. "He (Bush) wants to do everything he can for every American. ... I just don't believe that people would somehow decide this on the basis of color. It's not who we are."
Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., gestures during a news conference on Friday, Sept. 2, 2005 in Washington. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Black Leadership Forum, National Conference of State Legislators, National Urban League, and the NAACP were critical of the relief effort for victims of Hurricane Katrina. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Shake-down time.
"Gimmee gimmee gimmee.... wha'd ya got for me?"
the Congressional Black Caucus, Black Leadership Forum, National Conference of State Legislators, National Urban League, and the NAACP..
No agenda here , I'm sure, when all these groups swarm ..
Give them a break.
Ignoring the toxic rhetoric for a moment, a large number of the people they represent are in deep trouble.
The incompetence was all on the shoulders of LA. boneheads. I wouldn't let these pimps shine my shoes
This is what is being flung at us while we are supposed to turn the other cheek???? I think not.
Cummings is a racist. These Leftwing wackos have been screaming since President Bush was elected that the President is "dividing" America. Can anyone tell me what the DemonRATS and their toadies in the MSM have been doing this last week is called. I've always hated Communists. With the Soviet Union now long gone, it's nice to have the "DemocRATS" around to remind me of that.
I'd hand each of them a shovel and a one-way bus ticket to N.O. Let them help those they claim to represent.
A break?
Katrina is only the latest tragedy visited on large numbers of people many of these same orgs milk for votes to further socialist agendas.
I've a sudden urge to vomit.
Way to go, team Washington. Just legitimized the moonbats...again.
"Ignoring the toxic rhetoric for a moment, a large number of people they represent are in deep trouble."
Can't dispute that, but it bugs me to no end to see them use these people to advance their political career. It's shameless.
Exactly...
I've tolerated the (bleepin) toxic rhetoric for most of my 63 years, but I'm now progessing into compassion fatigue when I hear this obvious shakedown rhetoric and see a black woman throw an MRE to the ground after taking one bite, saying "I don't eat food like that!" (It's good enough for her black bretheren in the military, but not her!)
This NAACP/Jesse Jackson shake-down routine is getting insufferable!!! They've had enough breaks and they're actually using this in a concerted effort with ABC and other MSM to make this administration look as bad as possible because they hate that the war has diverted taxdollars they feel entitled to for too long!
That's the underlying undercurrent behind all the leftist anti-war movements!!! Did anyone else catch ABC's "World News Tonight?" Today's "newscast" was the biggest collection of propoganda in a cresendo of overstated criticism of the administration in a deliberate and concerted effort with these groups to tear down America, one more relentless time!!!
I've about HAD IT with these perpetual bawl babies!!!
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