I was spellbound,
listening to Russert
- He tore apart Bush for claiming we didn't anticipate this: "Who is advising him?" He noted the Hurricane Pam similution that predicted a levee breach.
- He called Chertoff out for claiming that he heard about the levees breaking Tues. afternoon, noting that the Times-Picayune had that news up Monday.
- He slammed the Feds about not knowing about the Convention Center.
- He asked repeatedly why, four years after 9/11, we were so woefully unprepared for this disaster. He wondered what was going on the past 4 years.
- Imus wondered if racism was involved. Russert wasn't sure and just thought it was pure incompetence. (Memo to White House: when MSM is debating whether your failures were due to racism or incompetence, no spin will save you).
I didn't catch the whole thing, and I'm looking around for a transcript or a clip somewhere. If I or anyone else locate one I'll post it here. Please round out my recollection in the comments if you heard him this morning too.
http://www.redcross.org/
(Any updates after the flip)
Update [2005-9-6 10:16:18 by VirginiaDem]: I should add, I watched this live on MSNBC this morning - so this was widely distributed.
Update [2005-9-6 10:23:34 by VirginiaDem]: I forgot about some of the best stuff! Posted by redheadedwomen in the comments, but good enough to put here too: "He said that the primary responsibility of the government was to protect its people. He said that this administration promised to keep us safe and that four years after 9/11, it appeared our first responders still couldn't talk to one another and communicate effectively to reach people.
He also said that he thought that Chertoff's excuses on Meet the Press on Sunday were weak because he thought that the American people were perfectly capable of questioning the response and the government AND conducting relief/rescue operations. That we HAD to question this government on their slow response. Also, he totally made the parallel between the failure of finding WMD in Iraq and how the administration tried to claim that we couldn't fight the war and criticize what the government had initially told us, just as they now want to deflect/avoid any criticisim/questioning of the relief effort. He said that privately, he's being told
the death toll will be astronomical."
Update [2005-9-6 11:4:29 by VirginiaDem]: Courtesy of appalled, the audio is at this link:
http://wfan.com/imusinstantreplay