Politicizing Katrina
In the mountains of email emerging from the Katrina disaster, there's one important point worth making: There was a concerted Democratic effort to try to turn Katrina into a political weapon -- and the effort was successful, thanks to willing handmaidens in the MSM. Here's an excerpt from The New York Times:
Aides to Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic leader, called Mr. Mann to discuss strategy, a conversation that indirectly included Mike McCurry, the former press secretary to President Clinton, according to one e-mail message.
"By the weekend, the Bush administration will have a full blown PR disaster/scandal on their hands because of the late response to needs in New Orleans," Mr. Mann wrote on Sept. 1, the Thursday after the storm, attributing that observation to Mr. McCurry. The same day, Mayor C. Ray Nagin of New Orleans gave an emotional radio interview in which he criticized Mr. Bush for having merely flown over the city in Air Force One.
Here's the AP's offering:
For the state's part, Blanco's chief of staff Andy Kopplin e-mailed employees Sept. 4 saying they needed to get national supporters to say "that the federal response was anemic" and asked them to point out budget cuts to levee programs.
While Blanco's office wanted to blame the federal government, the documents show that her staff didn't want it to appear as if the federal government was seizing state power.
Perfect. The federal government was to be blamed, without having been given any significant power to do what needed to be done.
What's interesting is that, so far, none of the stories have referenced a reciprocal strategy on the part of the Bush Administration to affix blame on Blanco. Indeed, to the extent the "blame game" was played, it seems clearly to have been started by those on the left. And then furthered by those in the press.
Seems they were more worried about their own political necks than the poor and suffering in New Orleans.
Aides to Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic leader, called Mr. Mann to discuss strategy, a conversation that indirectly included Mike McCurry, the former press secretary to President Clinton, according to one e-mail message.
"By the weekend, the Bush administration will have a full blown PR disaster/scandal on their hands because of the late response to needs in New Orleans," Mr. Mann wrote on Sept. 1, the Thursday after the storm, attributing that observation to Mr. McCurry. The same day, Mayor C. Ray Nagin of New Orleans gave an emotional radio interview in which he criticized Mr. Bush for having merely flown over the city in Air Force One.
Here's the AP's offering:
For the state's part, Blanco's chief of staff Andy Kopplin e-mailed employees Sept. 4 saying they needed to get national supporters to say "that the federal response was anemic" and asked them to point out budget cuts to levee programs.
While Blanco's office wanted to blame the federal government, the documents show that her staff didn't want it to appear as if the federal government was seizing state power.
Perfect. The federal government was to be blamed, without having been given any significant power to do what needed to be done.
What's interesting is that, so far, none of the stories have referenced a reciprocal strategy on the part of the Bush Administration to affix blame on Blanco. Indeed, to the extent the "blame game" was played, it seems clearly to have been started by those on the left. And then furthered by those in the press.
Seems they were more worried about their own political necks than the poor and suffering in New Orleans.
posted by LadybugUSA at 11:59 AM
1 Comments:
It is worth noting here that this was an unprecedented act of transparency by a government.
From the same NY Times article:
"The correspondence released on Friday apparently received almost no editing, other than the blacking out of certain names and telephone numbers for people not associated with the state government. It includes handwritten notes, audio recordings of conference calls and even a few doodles on legal pads."
How refreshing. And since these were the communiques within the Louisiana government, there would of course be nothing there that could shed light on the behind-the-scenes political calculations and "strategery" sessions of the White House, would there Carol?
Do you get that? Do you understand the difference between Lousiana releasing all its communications, warts and all, and the Bush regime's usual clampdown on all its paper trails? And why would the White House not want to release everything?
Get real.
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