Townhall’s Steve Muscatello is hearing unconfirmed reports that Nagin has resigned—possible, though I saw him delivering a news conference earlier today and he seemed much calmer than anytime in the last few days (for what that’s worth).
Secondly, rls notes :
I was listening to the radio last night, some woman sitting in for L. Ingram (Iknow, Radio Free Nazi) and she was saying that the Bush Admin legal request for the Feds taking over was sent the Friday before the Hurricane.
Bush wanted to get the NG and Title 10 troops in to NOLA and have them execute a mandatory evacuation. Gov thought about it for 24 hrs and rejected the request.
If this is so, it sort of throws different light onto a lot of things.
Indeed it would.
Though I wouldn’t expect it’d make much difference to some of those who are soured on FEMA’s subsequent response.
The only governor/24-hours/decision story I know of occurred post-storm:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0509/05/ltm.01.htm
He called me in that office after that. And he said, “Mr. Mayor, I offered two options to the governor.” I said—and I don’t remember exactly what. There were two options. I was ready to move today. The governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision.
Well, there’s the WaPo piece I linked, which was unclear about which Friday they were talking about
I think putting the two articles together suggests that it was Friday, 9/2.
Sorry about my screwed up link, by the way.
Seems that someone in the press corps could stop emoting long enough to clear this up.
Can anyone listen to a tape of The Laura Ingram Show on yesterday? Do they archive those things? The hostess was out of Los Angeles, sitting in for Laura on the holiday.
I’ll try to google & see if I can find a transcript.
President Bush DID ask Governor Blanco to cede authority to the Feds the Friday before the Hurricane, making specific references to the evacuation.
The 24 hour comment, however, was made by Mayor Nagin and was when the President Bush had the Mayor, the Governor and other officials on board Air Force One.
It sounds as if the two stories are being consolidated by association, since the Governor/Mayor did not announce evacuation until Sunday at noon.
http://www.i-magery.com/archives/2005/09/vampires_and_ac.html
Well, if true, I guess it’s better he resigned before being run out of town on a rail. Unfortunately, it won’t protect him when the final signature is blotted. He was probably adequate when times were good, but lacked leadership when it was required.
Given the cicumstances, certain aspects of his problem could have happened to anyone. Unfortunately, the word politician is not synonymous with leader.
For those that don’t want to dig, here’s the quote and link to the WaPo article that talks about Bush asking Blanco to cede authority:
Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state’s emergency operations center said Saturday.
And here is Mayor Nagin’s comments about the 24 hours wait for Gov Blanco’s decision:
Nagin: The president looked at me. I think he was a little surprised. He said, no, you guys stay here. We’re going to another section of the plane and we’re going to make a decision. He called me in that office after that and he said, Mr. Mayor, I offered two options to the governor. I said—I don’t remember exactly what—two options. I was ready to move today. The governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision.
O’Brien: You told me the president told you the governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision?
Nagin: Yes.
O’Brien: Regarding what? Bringing troops?
Nagin: Whatever they had discussed. As far as what the—I was advocating a clear chain of command. So that we could get resources flowing in the right places.
O’Brien: The governor said no?
Nagin: She said she needed 24 hours to make a decision. It would have been great if we could of left air force one, walked outside, and told the world that we had this all worked out. It didn’t happen. And more people died.
Maybe some one should chekc the Laura Ingraham’s shwo website, assuming there is such an animal. Maybe they archive shows.
Check and Show…preview is my friend.
I have seen the claim about Blanco refusing to cede authority before the storm in a couple places, and I think people are reading the WaPo article (which is the source cited by all) incorrectly. I think the Friday in question was last Friday (9/2), after the storm.
The article in question is dated Saturday, 9/3, and appeared on Sunday, 9/4, and if you read the paragraph in context they are talking about other very recent, post-storm events immediately before.
The 9/2 date is also significant since that’s the day the President actually met with Blanco, amid rising hysteria about looting and how badly the local LANG effort was floundering.
The unconfirmed report about Nagin would be entirely in character, given his abdication of responsibility in the last week.
He may well decide to take in a few shows in Vegas himself.
Even assuming it happens, there’s no assurance his replacement would be any better.
That may be true, LaguanaDave. I took it to be the previous Friday because two paragraphs later the article stated:
Louisiana did not reach out to a multi-state mutual aid compact for assistance until Wednesday, three state and federal officials said. As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, the senior Bush official said.
This implies, if only by linear description, that it was the previous Friday, since they certainly are not discussing tomorrow.
…not that I trust journalists to put things in order.
It would be interesting to find another refernce to help triagulate precisely which Friday is in question.
I picked this link up at Captains Quarters (Comments). Reading this latest? interview with Blanco, it appears that the memorandum was sent either after or at the same time as Gen. Honore arrived.
So I guess that means that it was last Friday and not the Friday before Katrina.
The conversation that resulted in the 24-hour wait occurred on the first Air Force One visit. When was that…?
I think that was the one where everybody kept waiting for the press conference but the meeting went on for some time.
I saw Nagin recount this in an earlier interview.
that was on the friday after katrina, you know, when the president was visiting california and playing guitar and ignoring everything.
crap, i meant to say, unlike the friday before when he was doing all that stuff.
It was when Bush was seeing his girl Friday.
I just watched Bill O’Reilly make the assertion that after Blanco asked for NO to put in a state of emergency, she turned over authority at that point to the feds.
And therein lies the entire execrable FOXNews coverage of the hurricane in a nutshell: blowhards like O’Reilly presuming to pontificate and point fingers, to accuse and grandstand—and he hasn’t even bothered to learn the law.
Like many on the left, this populist moron wanted the feds to seize control from the GOvernor – something his GUEST had to inform him would be unconstitutional.
But O’Reilly, you see, “was just lookin’ out for the folks,” and there had to be “something Bush could do.”
Bottom line: we have a preening, self-important press who cares more about sensationalism and a good controversy than they do about the facts, or about doing all but the most basic research (though, to FOX’s credit, Major Garrett and Brit Hume seem to have it figured out).
I hope more and more people turn away from tabloid journalism. I’ve learned more about the legal and procedural niceties going through the blogs this week than I’ve learned from the press—and they’ve been reading blogs for a week themselves.
Pathetic. It breaks my heart.
All government stinks. But the local LA governments stink worse than all the others put together. Blanco the governess, Nagin the mejor, Landrieu the pugilist–all of them are crap.
The Feds are not great and made some mistakes, especially the local FEMA sit-on-their-butts. The military made everyone proud, though. The military can move just about anything just about anywhere.
television journalism = tabloid journalism
TV is incapable of serious discourse. Don’t be surprised when they churn out sensationalism and propaganda.
O’Reilly is always a moron with oakleaf clusters.
Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state’s emergency operations center said Saturday.
I found this unclear when I read also. Why would W send her a proposal if this was the issue discussed on Air Force One that she took 24 hours to say no to?
seems the mayor got a threatening phone call from the LA/national democrat party? maybe an offer to swim with Jimmy Hoffa or something for saying ugly things about the lovely governor?
my word is quite. lord, could I be right?
television journalism = entertainment
Give the people what they want, that is a big reason why they line up so nicely with the left, they are both pandering to the same demographic.
The request by Bush to “take over” the relief efforts occurred on the Thursday after the hurricane, not before.
<a href=”http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0509/05/ltm.01.html” target=”_blank”>This interview on CNN</a> with Nagin relates the story that Bush and Blanco met privately on AF One to discuss the President’s request and Blanco asked for 24 hours to think about it. On Friday, she turned Bush down.
It may be that Bush was simpling continuing his efforts to gain control of the situation. Dr Sanity has a piece that corroborates the original interpretation of the WaPo article.
The email to Dr Sanity is pretty damning:
The words and behavior of Blanco and her advisors have that distinct aroma of political mistrust and preemptive self defense. At every critical juncture we find out that W was in the wings calling out the proper play and Blanco was second guessing based on political considerations and partisan suspicion.
There’s no proof that a single life would have been spared had she listened but since things turned out rather badly she has a lot to answer for.
saw a blurb on CNN with Nagin, Newsguy was asking him what he thought of the federal response. Basically asked him, who he blamed, Bush or Brown. He said he wasn’t going to say who he felt caused the whole mess, but rest assured he wouldn’t forget, and when this was all over he’d let us know. Then he repeated the “I won’t forget” part and I threw a brick at my TV and haven’t watched since. I thought he was talking about Bush, wonder if he was talking about the Gov??
Nah.
Anyone know where I can get a cheap TV?
TW=whether weird.