I was wondering when it would happen. While our volunteers and military are picking up bodies in New Orleans, the White House has decided to try and revive their corpse of an administration by shifting blame. After suffering from a week of media coverage detailing a lack of response to rescue thousands from within the city, the White House is pinning the blame on Louisiana's (democratic) governor, Kathleen Blanco. To paraphrase Harry Truman, the "buck" apparently stopped short of the President's desk.
According to CNN, the Bush administration is claiming that they "offered" to Blanco to have the post-hurrican response federalized. By that, the National Guard would be run from Washington D.C., (or high above the calamity on Air Force One while AP photogs snap those poignant posed pictures for us all to see the President inaction, uh, I mean IN - ACTION). Blanco passed.
What Blanco did was what any other governor would've done. She asked for Guardsmen when it was apparent they were needed. The problem was logistical, from that point, though...with 3,000 members of the Louisiana National Guard still in Iraq serving THAT worthwhile venture, there weren't many left in the state to show up. Neighboring Mississippi and Alabama had their own messes to clean up from Katrina, and waiting on Guard members from the likes of Texas, Arkansas, and even "nearby" Colorado to arrive would take more precious time than many ill and dying New Orleans residents had to survive.
What's more, I don't recall Jeb turning over his state to the feds, but then I also don't remember his brother making such a claim of non-responsiblity after-the-fact, either.
So today, while President Bush has decided to make his third flight into the state (as his poll numbers continue to lag), he's floated out the notion that Blanco is to blame, and has now decided not to invite her to his visit. Funny, I saw the 'Bama and 'Sippi governors all standing around when Bush visited their states a few days ago for the scripted photo-op/meeting.
Blanco's people contaced the White House and "invited themselves" to his visit. So when you hear the right-wing mouthpieces on the radio and Fox News Channel gripe about people "politicizing" the post-Katrina efforts, remember that it all starts at the top.