How much blame does Gov. Blanco deserve?

MSNBC ^ | October 11, 2005 | Lisa Myers

[StJacques]

WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 — It was Gov. Blanco's first big disaster — and less than 48 hours before Katrina hit, she reassured the state.

"I believe we are prepared," she said in Jefferson Parish on Aug. 27. "That's the one thing that I've always been able to brag about."

Though experts had warned it would take 48 hours to evacuate New Orleans, Blanco did not order a mandatory evacuation that Saturday.

"We're going to pray that the impact will soften," she said.

Blanco and the mayor waited until Sunday, Aug. 28 — only 20 hours before Katrina came ashore — to order a mandatory evacuation, the first of what disaster experts and Louisiana insiders say were serious mistakes by the governor.

"It certainly appeared that there was a lot of indecisiveness exhibited by the governor in the early stages of the disaster," says Louisiana State Democratic Senator Donald Cravins.

A key criticism: the governor's slowness in requesting federal troops. She told the president she needed help, but it wasn't until Wednesday, Aug. 31 that she specifically asked for 40,000 troops. . . .

[StJacques]

Even though MSNBC claims it is taking a "hard look" at the role of officials at every level of government associated with the Katrina disaster response; as a Louisianian I must say that I consider this article to be extremely weak, for the following reasons:

1. There is no examination of what actually happened to the Louisiana State Troopers and National Guard troops who were dispatched to New Orleans immediately after the storm; by which I refer to the estimated 1,500 state troopers and 2,000 national guardsmen who preceded the 40,000 troops Kathleen Blanco requested Wednesday Aug. 31, three days after Katrina hit the city. Blanco has stated elsewhere that she "doesn't know" what happened to them, but there is widespread recognition here in Louisiana that, with the exception of the National Guard engineers who went to the Convention Center and went to the levees and a few dozen MPs who patrolled the central business district following the Tuesday looting, almost all of the initial contingent of state troopers and national guardsmen manned roadblocks and the levees surrounding the city, effectively isolating and segregating its population from the adjacent areas.

2. There is no mention of the Louisiana Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness's refusal to permit relief trucks from the Red Cross and the Salvation Army from going to New Orleans on Tuesday and Wednesday Aug. 30-31 to the relief of those people trapped at the Superdome and Convention Center and especially no examination of what the La. Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness director meant when he told Marty Evans of the Red Cross that he didn't want those two sites to "become magnets" when the relief trucks arrived. That comment has since been justified as meaning that the La. Dept. of H.S. & E.E. didn't want people to resist evacuation, which is nonsense, since you would have to concentrate people in order to evacuate them. Many of us here in Louisiana recognize that this was an act of defamation of those who were stranded in implying they were not fit to receive the relief in good order.

3. There is no mention of the actions of the La. Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries in preventing privately-organized rescue efforts from putting boats into the water on Tuesday and Wednesday Aug. 30-31 to pick up stranded New Orleanians and come to the relief of Charity Hospital, which General Honoré later said was news he considered "incredulous" to hear.

And those are just a few items missing, I could go on. I also want to say that I am struck by the fact that this report was released on the NBC Nightly News on Sunday night, which guaranteed that it would not be part of the news cycle during the week.

Even when they claim to be investigating Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco, the mainstream media is still providing cover for her. The glaring omissions of this report make that clear in my opinion.

[smonk]

I think mayor mccheese was probably more to blame, but she still blew it big time.

[hlmencken3]

And there is no mention of her 'screw Nagin' actions connected to his support of her political opponents.

[TaxRelief]

Well that's a first! The mainstream media is covering for a white Dem? Go figure...

[WasDougsLamb]

I believe we are prepared," she said in Jefferson Parish on Aug. 27. "That's the one thing that I've always been able to brag about."

Lady, if I was you I wouldn't go bragging about how "prepared" you were. That just shows what incompetant fools you and Nagin are.

[StJacques]

Mayor Nagin made a lot of mistakes, but he had no legal authority to enforce an evacuation order unless Gov. Blanco made her declaration, which she waited until 20 hours before the storm hit to do so.

I know a lot of people outside Louisiana might not see this, but Mayor Nagin is paying the price for decades of mismanagement and corruption by the Morial political machine which preceded him. I'm not sympathetic to Nagin by any means, but Kathleen Blanco is purely and simply boardwood dumb. Her incompetence and ineptitude are unbelievable.

[raisincane]

The ease of evacuations from FL and TX made the LA evacuations look like the disaster it was. Blankity Blank deserves lots of blame.
IMHO...After that televised cop beating, the NO folks may never return.

[JennysCool]

Just as many women as men in government are as dumb as fenceposts. The difference is, political correctness makess the female fenceposts virtually immune to criticism, and we see what happens.

[sgtbono2002]

Of course no one deserves blame for a Hurricane. The blame comes in the matter of preparation for and the matter of carrying out what has to be done for the safety of the city and its residents.

For being unprepared and responding late:

I would say she deserves the Lions share. Or maybe in her case the Lioness.

There is an old saying they didnt know heir head from the hole in their butts. It appears she and Nagin suffered from that very fate.

[MarMema]

"I believe we are prepared," she said in Jefferson Parish on Aug. 27. "That's the one thing that I've always been able to brag about."

HA,HA,HA,HA,HA,HA,HA.....

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

Blanco messed up big time. But really, how does a person train for something like this? You just have to learn from your mistakes, hopefully. I think people should certainly assess what went wrong. I just do not favor pointing fingers. No one probably messed up on purpose. This just gets ridiculous, and it isn't helpful.

[lilylangtree]

Nothing about catching the twit off the cuff remark to her press secy about how she should have called in the military. Remarkable how her tune changed when her remarks became publicized. Too bad her idiot counterpart Nagin didn't get caught.

[PeskyOne]

I just do not favor pointing fingers. No one probably messed up on purpose.

You're right about pointing fingers, but when the Governor tries to blame others for her failures, she needs to be called on it immediately, and the media should not cover up the fact she was totally inept; as was Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans. Both were incompetent and negligent and tried to pass the blame to others. When I called family and friends in Louisiana, they asked that I please tell my email buddies the truth about the failure of the Governor and Mayor to perform their duties. I can't generate much sympathy for either of them after listening to their blatantly dishonest comments. They, along with Mary Landrieu, should, IMO, be recalled and never allowed to hold public office again! I consider them to be an embarrassment to the State of Louisiana.

[Wiseghy]

"You just have to learn from your mistakes..."

What concerns me about Gov. Blanco is not that she was clearly unprepared and over her head. It is that she actively and deceptively sought to shift blame to the President. She brought in Clinton political operatives even while the disaster was on-going in order to facilitate this process.

It appears clear that she took a gamble that the storm would weaken before it hit shore, hoping to avoid political fallout from over-response. She then sought to cover up her bad call by blaming national authorities. The lack of truthfullness and out-right deception and cover-up are what most take issue with.

[Wuli]

Find an Email address for someone at MSNBC at send a copy of your post to them, as comments on their article. Let them know that the public knows how lousy is their "investigative reporting".

Add the comment that too little is made of the error to not enforce a mandatory evacuation. Had the state enforced that evacuation and begun it in a timely fashion, most of the local calls for complaint about "Fema" would not have existed. Most of the tragedy of Katrina was not created by Katrina. It was created by problems that stemmed from local and state actions and inactions.

[RinaseaofDs]

All of the blame. She was the sovereign of the state. She had all of the authority, she deserves all of the blame. Matter of fact she was caught admitting she was the problem by a journalist while she thought she was off camera.

[dirtboy]

as a Louisianian I must say that I consider this article to be extremely weak,

It was weak all around. I am afraid that we are going to pay dearly for Katrina and learn little from the experience - which means we could well pay all over again some day.

[caisson71]

Nagin, Blanco and Landrieu are guilty of criminal neglect and incompetence, to varying degrees. The people of LA put them, and worse, in office and they only have themselves to blame. That does not negate criminal charges for the lot of them.

[BoBToMatoE]

I stopped visiting MSNBC.Com a long time ago due to the fact that almost everything they wrote was either a propaganda piece for the dems or a hit piece against Republicans.

CNN.com has more balanced on line news than MSNBC.com ever thought about. That should tell you somthing.

[rlmorel]

"DING DING DING! What do we have for her, Johnny?"