Tensions color Bush, Blanco meeting (Blanco not notified Bush was coming)

[brooklynite]

Gov. Kathleen Blanco canceled a scheduled trip Monday to visit Louisiana evacuees in Houston shelters to stay in Baton Rouge to meet with President Bush.

Blanco Communications Director Bob Mann said the governor did not learn about the Bush visit until early Monday morning.

“We had no idea the president was coming,” Mann said.

Tension between the Blanco and Bush administrations has surfaced in recent days as state and federal officials try to coordinate recovery efforts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The Blanco administration clearly wanted to express their irritation with the communication about the president's trip.

Blanco officials said they had heard that the president might make a visit and had been trying to get details. As of late Sunday night, FEMA officials told Blanco that the president was not planning a visit, Mann said.

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_09.html#077062
- - -
Nice to know all those pesky communicatoin problems have been worked out...

[DemBones DemBones]

1. TV news was saying last night that * was going to

NO again today. I don't blame Blanco for not believing tv news but FEMA really should have told her the truth. And if FEMA didn't know, that's another big problem.

[CityDem]

9. Ditto

It was announced yesterday on the sunday shows that * was going to visit Baton Rouge. Blanco better not fly on any small planes in the near future.

[aquart]

28. Does Blanco have TV?

[BlueStatesForever]

29. After Rehnquist died

After Rehnquist died, Bush's monday photoop/visit became iffy. As of Sunday, I saw all over the news that Bush "may come".

What a waste of oxygen that man Bush is.

[txindy]

34. Yeah, I think she was busy with other things.

It's the feds who seem to rely on TV for their updates. Or so it would seem over the past week. The posers.

[demgrrrll]

2. They know they are sunk if they cannot blame her. She needs to get

someone out front and center right away and get the truth out. Bush is fighting for his political life and Rove knows it. They are ruthless. The unannounced visits are typical bully tactics, trying to catch your opponent off guard and hoping for a misstep. I sure hope she has some good people behind her.

edited for crappy sentence

[pearl]

3. She just hired James Dewitt

Clinton's former FEMA head.
Do be her liaison to FEMA.

[complain jane]

7. That sounds like a good thing, let's hope.

Buscho is ruthless, that's for sure.

[Dudley_DUright]

11. James Lee Witt

(just in case anyone wants to google his name for the story).

[kma3346]

15. "James Lee Witt, Governor Blanco's Paid Liar"

When I did a Google News search for "James Lee Witt," the first "news" item on the list was, "James Lee Witt, Governor Blanco's Paid Liar" at:

http://newsbusters.org/node/927

Boy, how does that bit of nasty propaganda find its way to the top of the search results?

[Dogmudgeon]

20. It's Brent Bozell's operation

It's part of his Media Research Center, which does very little research, but is a major propaganda outfit that appears to have started its smear machine on the Friday night before Katrina hit.

--p!

[Tanuki]

22. "Google bomb"

The right wing lost no time on trying to discredit Witt. Here's how a google bomb works:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_bomb

[jeffreyi]

30. Kathleen Blanco has been g-bombed also

Google news:

"gov. kathleen blanco, no state of emergency"

From Newsmax, no less.

The bullies have their schtick down.

I hope Gov. Blanco has some very good allies advising and strategizing right now, they have declared war.

[me b zola]

31. I have countered this with our own google bomb

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4647579

I have posted a link to a positive story from WAPO about James Lee Witt. :)

[applegrove]

4. What Bush needs is for her to buckle under and get on his message -

that it was mother nature. He will demand it. He will bully & pressure. That is the way he controls the situation..if someone looks strong..and thinking for themselves...he must attack or control them. There will be kisses & hugs. And she will buckle under because if not..he will not rebuild New Orleans.

[ananda]

8. actually..

I don't think there's any option but to rebuild NOLA. Too much of the American and world economy is dependent on the ports.

Blanco should just call his bluff.

Don't let them get away with any swiftboating.

Sue

[belle]

27. No, they'll just "Plame" her, personally, somehow.

[Talismom]

32. If they don't Wellstone her. n/t

[Cha]

37. Or Hatfield her! n/t

I hope not any Dems in the crosshairs will be so cavalier as to get in small planes, again..and they might want to write something down that will be opened and read to the nation if they get suicided!

[IndyOp]

38. Must send letters/postcards warning her to travel only

only public airplanes -- at not on planes at all during winter (de-icing is often not done well on planes of Dems).

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

40. I worry that she...

...might cave under unrelenting pressure from Bushco. Chimpy has much to hold over her. I still think her best move would be to go public with the entire truth of what they're trying to get her to agree to and the threats they used to do it. She will be Swiftboated either way.

[jus_the_facts]

5. nothing's been worked out....not much anyway....

...sure we've got some shelters..but there are hundreds of thousands homeless with nothing to go toward or back to. :cry:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=155&topic_id=2340

[DS1]

6. Deal with a Chimp, expect to have poo flung at you

Seems logical to me, anyway.

[54anickel]

10. Where is his usual security detail coming from? Normally, it's been the

communities he visits that have to provide their own police and get stuck with the overall bill. This will most likely end up diverting energy and man-power from relief efforts, but the pig doesn't care.

Shit, if I were Blanco, I'd go ahead and check on my constituents stuck in Houston. Of course, I'd make sure I left someone in charge to counter the lies he'd likely spew in my absence. Tell the f'er I'm outta the office.

[unrepuke]

23. Exactly. She should have said "Screw him with his tailored sleeves

rolled up, hugging black children, I have work to do." and gone to Houston.

[ECH1969]

12. The media reported Saturday that Bush would be coming

on Monday.

[Spazito]

14. Yep, but the White House didn't inform the Governor

despicable. Is the Governor supposed to find out via the media or from the President office?

[NoQuarter]

21. Well, considering Sec. Jerkoff's

excuses include the newspapers saying NO had dodged the bullet - which allowed him to roll over and go back to sleep on Tuesday - the answer must be get your facts from media.

Now, how does that excuse Browned shorts for ignoring media reports about the thousands with no supplies at the convention center?

Aren't these guys reading KKKarl's memos?

[EST]

36. This is ambassadorial protocol.

By not specifically informing her and putting her in the official loop, the message is that she is at about the level of dogshit on the scale. Specifically forcing her to get any information from and make plans based on TV news, the cheap shot can't be made any plainer.
Blanco confirms her own neophyte status by misinterpreting the slight and then allowing them to kick even more dirt on her.
The only reply, if ever she is to be taken seriously again, would be to intentionally yank his chain and toodle off to wherever she was going and leaving no message or some cryptic instructions, specifically lauding one of boosh's underlings and making some sort of promise about a later, wildly important meeting, hinting at some HUGE! sort of expose, possibly incriminating il doosh and promising to tell all--later--with the press in attendance. Unhappily, the syndicate is way better versed in this sort of palace intrigue and slime. Baby's milk to them.

[UpInArms]

13. maybe it would have been better for Blanco to have gone on

to NOLA and let her aides meet with Bushco - isn't that what he did the other night to the Leaders of the Black Caucus?

[Kelvin Mace]

16. I would have issued a very brief statement

The Governor regrets that Mr. Bush did not see fit to inform her of his planned visit in a timely fashion.

The Governor is busy at the moment coordinating rescue and relief efforts and does not have time for staged photo ops with Mr. Bush. She does ask him not to shut down local air space since stops us from doing our job.

[Kerrytravelers]

26. This is exactly what I would have done.

BUt I am like that. I don't get intimidated by anyone and have learned, over the years, to have no fear.

[Talismom]

33. Especially since bullies like the chimp are cowards who always fold

when you stand up to them!

[shanti]

17. is she the one who said she wanted

to "punch" *ush?

[MissMarple]

19. No that was Mary Landrieu.

[silverlib]

18. She knew he was coming, but

the WH announced he would NOT be meeting with her.

This is the SPIN -

[BamaBecky]

24. Blanco continues to impress me!...This gal has spunk!..n/t

She is forcing Bush to deal with her.......somebody wisper in her ear that these folks do kill people.....
Bama

[Dogmudgeon]

25. Typical Bush disrespect

The man wants to prove that he's the King of America. What better way of doing that than to make the lesser nobles jump when he so commands?

"Character Counts!" as the GOP used to say when the worst moral affront to the Nation's delicate sensibilities was Bill Clinton's extramarital foolishness. Demanding, like a spoiled child, that every knee bend and every head bow is the mark of a tyrant, not a leader. Leaders are usually gracious and strive to uplift those in subordinate positions. Tyrants ... well, tyrants act like Bush.

I think the behavior of Team Bush illustrates that they have issued and internal Red Alert and rightly fear that the backlash will cripple Bush until he leaves office, and the Republican Party for a generation. They know that there is very little time left before the death tolls and the bills begin to arrive.

Nobody is buying their spin and mud-slinging, either. Spot polling strongly suggests just the opposite is happening. If anything, Bush's attempts are making things worse for him. And to just arrogantly strut into the office of a state governor, unannounced, is transparent effrontery to everyone.

--p!

[raysr]

35. Gonna try to buy

or threaten her into taking the rap?

[raysr]

39. Look at this

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4644904&mesg_id=4644904