Crossposted at
Middlemostpost
At yesterdays reach around, Bush was asked this:
Q Why is it that this administration is not allowing the senior -- your senior staff that you conversated [sic] with prior to Hurricane Katrina, during and after, to testify, to interview or talk with congressional leaders? And why not push Michael Brown, who is now a private citizen, to go before them, as he is what many are calling a linchpin to the whole issue?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, let me make sure you have the facts. We have given 15,000 pages of White House documents to the investigators, congressional investigators; some -- I think it's 600,000 pages, administrative documents. We have sent a fellow named Rapuano to talk about -- he's a White House staffer -- to talk to the committee. There have been a lot of interviews. There have been public testimony.
As a matter of fact, we are so concerned about this that we've started our own investigation to make sure that lessons -- that we understand the lessons learned from this. This is a problem we want to investigate thoroughly so we know how to better respond on behalf of the American people.
And so we're fully cooperative with the members of the House in -- of the Senate, and we'll do so without giving away my ability to get sound advice from people on my staff. You see, April, here's -- and this is an issue that comes up all the time, and you might -- we've had several discussions like this since I've been the President. If people give me advice and they're forced to disclose that advice, it means the next time an issue comes up I might not be able to get unvarnished advice from my advisors. And that's just the way it works. But we've given thousands of pages of documents over for people to analyze.
Q Does that include Michael Brown?
THE PRESIDENT: Pardon me?
Q Does that include Michael Brown?
THE PRESIDENT: People who give me advice, it will have a chilling effect on future advisors if the precedent is such that when they give me advice that it's going to be subject to scrutiny.
He is saying that they cannot disclose their advice about a HURRICANE. This isn't some terrorist operation where secrecy is required, it's a fucking hurricane. Is there some top secret plan that the American people shouldn't know about? Is he getting some type of advice about a new water retraction device that if it fell into the wrong hands could spell doom for the entire gulf coast? Of course not, it's just King Bush hiding behind the cloak of executive power once again. All this at a time where our next supreme court justice is most likely going to grant even more power to the executive. Grand!