Posted on 09/11/2005 1:04:32 PM PDT by GreatOne
Sept. 19, 2005 issue - It's a standing joke among the president's top aides: who gets to deliver the bad news? Warm and hearty in public, Bush can be cold and snappish in private, and aides sometimes cringe before the displeasure of the president of the United States, or, as he is known in West Wing jargon, POTUS. The bad news on this early morning, Tuesday, Aug. 30, some 24 hours after Hurricane Katrina had ripped through New Orleans, was that the president would have to cut short his five-week vacation by a couple of days and return to Washington. The president's chief of staff, Andrew Card; his deputy chief of staff, Joe Hagin; his counselor, Dan Bartlett, and his spokesman, Scott McClellan, held a conference call to discuss the question of the president's early return and the delicate task of telling him. Hagin, it was decided, as senior aide on the ground, would do the deed.
But it is not clear what President Bush does read or watch, aside from the occasional biography and an hour or two of ESPN here and there. Bush can be petulant about dissent; he equates disagreement with disloyalty. After five years in office, he is surrounded largely by people who agree with him. Bush can ask tough questions, but it's mostly a one-way street. . . . When Hurricane Katrina struck, it appears there was no one to tell President Bush the plain truth: that the state and local governments had been overwhelmed, that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was not up to the job and that the military, the only institution with the resources to cope, couldn't act without a declaration from the president overriding all other authority.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
This moron doesn't mention (1) any culpability on behalf of Nagin for implementing the first stages of the evacuation/relief efforts; (2) that while the military may be able to mobilize some of its branches within 18 hours, they're not going to drop troops in when they don't know where to drop them, what points of entrance were available, how bad the damage was, etc.; and (3) there was a lot of resistance by Lousiana emergency officials from working with the feds.
Good grief.
democrat mantra to follow.
Who is Evan Thomas and what is a newsweek...
Yes..and like anything that begins with a false premise, everything that follows is bovine feces.
From the same "news" organization that brought you the "Koran Flushed" story. I can not imagine why anyone pays any attention to Newweak anymore.
Given that Newsweek is a virtual Death Valley of diverging viewpoints, it appears more and more that projection has become the mother's milk of the MSM
It is ridiculous that this kind of vitriol is not countered. They need to answer these attacks loudly, clearly, and quickly.
Hey Evan, Newsweak has been exposed as a Bush bashing troop hating publication thanks to your negligent publishing of your phoney Koran story resulting in multiple deaths. Keep on writing Evan, no one is reading.
And all of it comes across as fact when it is nothing but bullshit.
I have mentioned this 10 times, but it's just so ironic that the Dems are now blaming Bush for not acting like the fascist they always accuse him of being.
Evan Thomas. ROTFL! I don't know anyone that takes this fool seriously.
That's one of the most amazing thing about this piece (of crap) - he's apparently unaware that disaster relief is a bottom-up situation, with the bulk of the responsibility on the local agencies. While he mentions the Bush-Blanco discussion about getting the feds involves, he doesn't bash Blanco for not handing over authority, like she should have.
Another outrageous compenent of this is that the media is completely forgetting about the Florida hurricanes, and how Mississippi has handled themselves in situation vs. Louisiana. Having a brother at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, I can tell you that they got hit straight on, and while they didn't have number of people, the damage was worse. Where are the Mississippi vs. Louisiana stories? Or Louisiana vs. Florida?
Nope - all Bush's fault. Bastards.
Bush only blew it if you're a member of the MSM.
Well, "spit" is not my preferred word exactly. But Jim Rob has rules about using impolite language on the FR Forum.
Congressman Billybob
"..couldn't act without a declaration from the president overriding all other authority..."
Bwaaa...and just what would have been the reaction if he had?
The big game trick by the dems was to withhold aid and deny Federal cooperation until it was bad, then, with Bush exercising a presidential power, the blame would have been turned onto him.
What happened was that Blanco denied entry to the aid workers, stonewalled the Feds and because this little tactic backfired, the full court press in the media with Democrat talking points disseminated to all stations was quickly rolled out to stem the hemorrhage.
Guess what guys, you failed. You lose. You goofed. Tactic went kerflooy, and boy oh boy, someone is going to find out that the dems gave the media the talking points for the week which numbered, what, eight consecuative lies one right after another?
Someone will rat.....bwaaaaaa.....
It's coming. bwaaa.......
"I have mentioned this 10 times, but it's just so ironic that the Dems are now blaming Bush for not acting like the fascist they always accuse him of being."
Very true. They have no respect for individual state rights. With state rights comes a degree of independence from the federal government as was intended by our founding fathers. Of course, I figure they hate Bush so much partly because they worship government and anybody who doesn't treat their god as one, is a heretic in their minds.
Classic Evan Thomas. Chock full of politically-biased characterizations.
Kathleen Blanco "steely"? Right.
Ray Nagin as a fatalistic New Orleansian? Puh-leeze!
Evan Thomas also take the psychotic position that, with the right amount
of planning and execution, every eventuality of a major
natural disaster can be anticipated and the rightly calibrated
plan put immediately into effect.
It's this kind of dumbness that keeps Newsweek's best minds
numbed to reality and tied in procedural knots.
Of course, the unstated objective is to stir up so much resentment against Bush and Republicans that the voting public will throw them out of office.
Psssst, to Evan. It ain't workin', baby.
As best as I can discern, the mayor gets a pass because he was listening to jazz music.
(Clinton's "it", that is).
IMO, she is the one who should be forced out of office. The woman is clueless.
Bush should have known Democratic Governors are incompetent, especially the hysterical female ones. He should known that Democratic Black Mayors are ineffective goofs who barely have control of their slums in good weather, let alone bad. He should have put the constitution on ice and staged a military coup of an American City before the Hurrican even hit. He should have used active duty soldiers shoot those poor, oppressed looters as they tried to run away.
Gotta say, I am dissappointed that the President missed an opportunity to be so un-PC.
I'll bet we both have a pretty good idea why the mayor is above criticism. My first impression of him occurred when I saw him read a public announcement. The guy had to have been in on the writing of it, but none the less, he was having a very hard time reading it. I knew the City of New Orleans was in trouble right then.
"It's just so ironic that the Dems are now blaming Bush for not acting like the fascist they always accuse him of being."
Excellent point.
What I keep seeing, over and over, is that President Bush is squarely to blame for not stepping in and taking over Nagin and Blanco's jobs, since he should have been able to foresee that they would be unable to perform their duties.
In other words, the media is telling us that we should automatically assume DemocRATs in charge are incompetent.
I wonder if they realize that this is their message?
"He should known that Democratic Black Mayors are ineffective goofs who barely have control of their slums in good weather, let alone bad."
You really don't have to bring race into this. Inserting the word "black" in there is really uncalled for.
Tell ya the truth, Billybob, I believe all this media hype and political posturing was manufactured at the time the levee broke. Not just a CYA move on the part of the locals but an offensive hatched out of elite NY, Boston, LA and DC.
W cannot run again. W also refuses to be a Lame Duck. These attacks on Bush are an oblique attack on Republicans.
And I know you were trying to be ironic, saying it's the media that's suggesting Democratic black mayors are automatically incompetent, but I really have never heard a generalization like that until right now.
If they haven't figured it out yet their little comments here and there are not even making the news.
Gingrich figured it out with The Contract, why can't they figure it out now. It's the only way they will get any press. Line up 50 Senators, or Congressman and call a news conference. Tell the American people.
The MSM has declared open warfare on the president. The first thing he should do is replace Scott McClellan with someone who can intimidate those simpering little weasels like David Gregeory and Terry Moran.
PIcture him skinny-dipping in Nantucket with Don Imus. Can you take him seriously now?
another festering pile of biased crap from Newsweak. What a surprise.
As seriously as those two bags under Hillary Clinton's eyeballs.
I have to agree with you on that!...they need someone stronger in those WH pressers...
I have mentioned this 10 times, but it's just so ironic that the Dems are now blaming Bush for not acting like the fascist they always accuse him of being.
THat is a GREAT point! If he HAD taken over the efforts, they would be calling him Hitler all over again
Sheesh
LOL, if Bush had a D by his name, this story WOULD be favorable.
Mr Bush should hold a prime time press conference and take all the guff these "journalists" throw at him. He can then answer every question thoroughly and honestly and put some of this nonsense to rest. And you know the "reporters" will ask him every nasty, biased question they can think of.
Although I suppose then even if Bush does a masterful job at laying out the truth about what happened, the headlines the next day will read "Bush on defensive."
To be clear - Thomas merely glosses over the glaring, and predominent, errors committed by the state officials in his effort to place the blame solely on Bush. I stand by my #1 - he was looking for excuses for Nagin. I think you're correct on #2; reviewing that again demonstrates that he does cover that issue, although Thomas doesn't draw the correct conclusion from this info. As for #3, I was thinking of the info that Major Garrett reported on last week on Fox News, that state emergency officials were rejecting FEMA requests to send in food and water to the Superdome, because they didn't want more people coming there.
I've been ignoring Newsweek successfully for at least four years. Now I remember the horror... the spittle... the stink... the litterbox fodder...
Agreed. He comes across very weak.
That would be great...but Bush would never publicly lay the blame where it should be(Blanco & Nagin)...he's just not that kind of guy..and sometimes it hurts him politically...but, I on the other hand...LOL
A hurricane is bearing down on the Gulf Coast. Unfortunately, it has become clear that the Democratic Governor of Louisianna and the Mayor of New Orleans are unable to deal with the crisis to poor planning and general incompetence. Therefore I am skipping the usual constitutional niceties and declaring military control over the region. We also know that poor blacks are totally helpless in this situation and will take any opportunity to steal, rape and create chaos. So active duty military will patrol the ghettos to head off looting before it starts. A mandatory evacuation will proceed forthwith with focus on minorities and the elderly. Thank you, and God Bless America.
What do you suppose the media would have said Sunday morning?
I dont think he has to blame them necessarily. Just talk about what he and federal authorities did *right.* As you say though, he is always above blaming others, even when they deserve it. Now if this kind of mess had happened under the godlike President Clinton, he would whine and blame about everyone else's failures, esp. the GOP governors involved.
Of course if this sort of thing happened under President Clinton or Kerry, they would be getting nothing but praise from the elite media....
'08! Heck this is about '06 right now and is going to get progressively worse.
Demorat Propaganda Rag.
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