Sweet Jesus, someone get the defibrilator. My heart just stopped.
I truly believe this is the first time I've heard the President use the words "I" and "responsibility" in the same sentence.
It's breaking news on CNN. Ha! What type of nation do we live in when the President taking responsibility for something he was already responsible for is "BREAKING NEWS!!!!"
This is a brilliant PR move by Karl Rove & Co. The President
says he "takes responsibility", and pundits will fawn over how "humble" and "heartfelt" Bush appears when he says it. And Bush's numbers will go up, and the media will once again fall back into its stupor.
But that phrase, "I take responsibility" should be used as a starting point, not an end to the controversy over the Federal response. Democrats should hammer it from now until Must See TV Thursday that the President FAILED in his responsibility to the American people.
So...what do you guys make of it?
From the Yahoo article:
WASHINGTON
President Bush said Tuesday that "I take responsibility" for failures in dealing with Hurricane Katrina and said the disaster raised broader questions about the government's ability to respond to natural disasters as well as terror attacks.
[...]
"To the extent the federal government didn't fully do it's job right, I take responsibility," Bush said.
The president was asked whether people should be worried about the government's ability to handle another terrorist attack given failures in responding to Katrina.
[update]:Hat tip to guyermo for the screencapture:
Update [2005-9-13 14:56:44 by georgia10]:: As reported by
RawStory, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, the research branch of the Library of Congress, has just issued a report stating that Governor Blanco took all necessary steps required of her in response to the Hurricane. Specifically, the report finds that
"all necessary conditions for federal relief were met on August 28."
Read Conyer's original CRS request
here (PDF).
This is what we've been saying all along. Once the state of emergency was declared, the
National Response Plan kicks in it is the
responsibility of the President and the Secretary of Homeland Security to deploy resources to ensure a swift and adequate response.