Bush Katrina Probe Nominee Draws Flak
Questions raised over Frances Townsend's role in Katrina failings
By TIMOTHY J. BURGER/WASHINGTON
Posted Wednesday, Sep. 21, 2005
President Bush's choice of Homeland Security Adviser Frances Townsend to handle the Administration's internal inquiry into its flawed handling of Hurricane Katrina has drawn criticism from both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill. "Anyone who has basically had responsibilities to respond to this should not be the folks looking at it, in my judgment," Congressman Christopher Shays of Connecticut, a senior Republican on the House Committee on Homeland Security, told TIME. Though Townsend is "a tough lady," Shays said, "I don't think she can be objective because, frankly, I would want to know what was she doing in that time, before the storm, during the storm, after the storm. She is going to be one of the people that, in a sense, is being investigated. So I'm not sure that she's the logical choice."
Democrats, who have demanded an independent probe along the lines of the 9/11 Commission and have rejected the principle of an internal inquiry into Katrina failures, went even further: "There is a huge conflict of interest here," said Rebecca Kirszner, communications director for Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. "As the President's homeland security adviser, Townsend certainly was part of the Administration's response to Katrina."
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino declined to directly address such criticism, saying Wednesday that "the President has said he is committed to finding out what went wrong and what went right and the lessons to be learned. We are also committed to fully supporting the congressional investigation in addition to this internal review."
Townsend, according to a 2003 Executive Order issued in the course of establishing the Department of Homeland Security, is "the official primarily responsible for advising and assisting the President in the coordination of domestic incident management activities of all departments and agencies in the event of a terrorist threat, and during and in the aftermath of terrorist attacks, major disasters, or other emergencies, within the United States."...
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1107611,00.html?cnn=yes 
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