The right wing bloggers are running with claims by the Red Cross that state officials kept them from going in too soon. The geniuses at Powerline conclude:
The Democrats may need to re-think their calls for an investigation.
See, that's the difference between us and them. They put their party above the country, and would rather stiffle a real investigation than be forced to shoulder any blame.
We say, "investigate away", and let the chips fall where they may. If any Democrats share the blame, then so be it. We need to know what went wrong, who f'd up, and how we can prevent this sort of thing from happening again. If Blanco or another Democrats gets fingered in this epic screwup, that's okay.
But the wingers don't see it that way. "Rerthink their calls for an investigation"... Jeez. Talk about projection, as though our motivations are the same as theirs. As though we look at the Gulf Coast and think, "hmmm, how can we best protect Democrats who may have had a hand in this mess..."
Unlike them, we place country first, party second.
Armando is right -- one party is calling for an independent investigation, willing to get to the truth irrespective of which party's at faily. The other party wants a whitewash. We all know which is which.
Update: Oh, and here's the fact about that Red Cross allegation:
“MARTY EVANS, RED CROSS PRESIDENT AND CEO: Well, Larry, when the storm came our goal was prior to landfall to support the evacuation. It was unsafe to be in the city. We were asked by the city not to be there and the Superdome was made a shelter of last resorts and, quite frankly in retrospect, it was a good idea because otherwise those people would have had no shelter at all.”
In other words, the Red Cross was kept out before the storm, not after. But Like I said, that's just about irrelevant at this point. There's no doubt that state and city officials made blunders. Everyone would make mistakes in a disaster of this magnitude. Let's get them all out in the open so we can properly assess what went wrong and what can be done to fix it.