Blame Game: from 1992, another hurricane, another Bush:

[Robb]

"I would simply say this: First place, I'm not going to participate in the blame game, nor is Governor Chiles. What we're trying to do is help people."

Ñ George H.W. Bush, New York Times Page 1, 28 August 1992.
Spoken at news conference in response to criticism of the relief efforts in the aftermath of hurricane Andrew.

[fooj]

1. OMG! You've got to be kidding me!

This needs a nomination!

[Robb]

4. Ain't that a corker?

These guys gotta get some new material. ;)

[fooj]

20. Thanks for finding this! Excellent!

:bounce:

[UpInArms]

26. here's the full transcript

http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/research/papers/1992/92082800.html

excerpt:

Q. Was Chiles slow to ask for Federal troops?

The President. I'm not going to say that. I just expressed myself on this subject. I think we've responded. I think he would agree that when he asked for a massive amount of force yesterday, it's on the way. There were some things he asked about that we were not able to do, but as he said down there, and I will say here, we are having excellent cooperation between the Governor's office, the State of Florida, and the Federal Government. He said it, and I say it. I'm not going to change my mind on that. He's working -- --

Q. Weren't you ready to send troops in there sooner?

The President. -- -- very, very hard to coordinate. He's got a very difficult job down there.

Q. Weren't troops ready to move sooner than that at Bragg, though, and elsewhere?

The President. I've already said when we were asked to move, we moved these massive numbers of forces.

Q. But they were ready to move sooner if asked, weren't they?

The President. I'm not going to go into that because I don't -- what you seem to be interested in is kind of assigning blame or something. That is not what's at stake here, and I don't want to participate in that.

...more...

[lumpy]

31. Bump

Like father like son. Suppose George is being mentored by Poppy ?

[walldude]

2. Yeah, the whole Bush tree needs to go

the apple is only a small part of it. Let em' go live with their buddies in Saudi Arabia. Babs can then cover her beautiful mind with a Burka and shut the fuck up...

[fooj]

21. BWAHAHAHAHA!! Couldn't have said it better myself!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[seafan]

3. It's true. From the Bush Presidential Library Museum:

The President's News Conference on the Aftermath of Hurricane Andrew
August 28, 1992


Q. Mr. President, how do you respond to criticism that you did not act fast enough or you didn't respond to the needs -- --

The President. Well, I think the reason -- I would simply say this: First place, I'm not going to participate in the blame game, nor is Governor Chiles. What we're trying to do is help people. It doesn't do any good to go into ``who shot John.'' I can tell you this, that this large a military movement would not have taken place if there was not very early planning and cooperation by the military, and we have responded. I think the Governor would agree that when he asked for this massive movement of force, it was only within a few hours that we responded to that.

So I think much more important than when something took place or didn't take place is the feeling we must convey of total cooperation. I'm satisfied that we responded properly, and I'm very confident that the military have conducted their mission so far with beautiful planning, now excellent execution. I'm also satisfied that they will do whatever it takes to go the extra mile to help the people of Florida. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

Q. Was Chiles slow to ask for Federal troops?

The President. I'm not going to say that. I just expressed myself on this subject. I think we've responded. I think he would agree that when he asked for a massive amount of force yesterday, it's on the way. There were some things he asked about that we were not able to do, but as he said down there, and I will say here, we are having excellent cooperation between the Governor's office, the State of Florida, and the Federal Government. He said it, and I say it. I'm not going to change my mind on that. He's working -- --

http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/research/papers/1992/92082800.html


Did you notice this in the above passages:

"It doesn't do any good to go into ``who shot John.''

HHMmmmmmmmmmmm

[burythehatchet]

6. WHAT THE F**K

It doesn't do any good to go into ``who shot John.'' ...

as in KENNEDY?????

[glugglug]

7. And yes, he IS referring to JFK

Searching for "Bush" in the JFK assassination archives (much of it became unclassified in 1993) returns 238 results.

http://merrimack.nara.gov/cgi-bin/starfinder/8758/jfkcnew.txt

[Robb]

9. Not referring to any particular John

...It's an old saying. Nixon used it, I believe it goes back to turn-of-the-century military's "who struck John."

[glugglug]

10. well that makes sense...

Both Nixon and Bush Sr. are believed to have conspired in the JFK assassination

http://www.totse.com/en/conspiracy/dead_kennedys/161963.html

[Robb]

11. No, it doesn't

It's an idiom. "Who struck John" was also the title of a Duke Ellington tune in the 50's.

Now, that it got bungled into "shot" is interesting. But it's no "food on my family." :)

[lectrobyte]

5. That acorn/tree thing really is true: the turdlet doesn't roll far from

the shitpile. Same lame excuses.

[phusion]

8. At least Bush Sr.

can form a complete sentence.

[Spazito]

12. LOL, it figures, when in trouble, run to daddy, as always

I hope using the expression 'blame game' works as well for baby bush as it did for daddy, he lost the election, in part, because of his response to hurricane Andrew. People didn't buy the 'blame game' meme then and they aren't going to buy it now.

[bobbieinok]

28. a much more independant press and no Diebold then

[bobbieinok]

29. also then,....hurricane in August 92 and election in November 92

[geomon666]

13. Gov. Chiles was a damn saint

compared with what we have now as Gov. All these Bushes can rot in hell.

[demo dutch]

14. Yea I remember that one, it took 9 days before FEMA arrived in So. FL.

[geomon666]

16. Yeah, that was definitely one of life's little lessons.

It's amazing what you learn about yourself dealing with no power for almost 2 months, oppressive summer heat, armed troops on every street corner and just a few packs of MRE's to see you through the week before the next truck comes by to dump some more off.

[demo dutch]

19. Yep, you would have thought they (Govt) actually learned something after

Andrew

[gatorboy]

15. Besides the "Blame Game" thing

It's interesting that Hurricane Andrew was also a big problem for Bush Sr. He was seen as taking action too slow and in turn, blamed state govenment on the problems....

Come to think of it...Didn't they blame Chiles for waiting too long when asking for NG help?

[geomon666]

17. They tried...

but South Floridians knew better and he got re-elected.

[Garbo 2004]

18. History Channel just ran documentary on Andrew...showed clip of Bush

saying that. The script is exactly the same now as then.

[blonndee]

22. I saw that this morning! It WAS the same script and same

complaints.

[fooj]

23. I find this interesting...

So I think much more important than when something took place or didn't take place is the feeling we must convey of total cooperation.

Peace.

[DarkTirade]

25. Would be funny...

if it wasn't so tragic.

[UpInArms]

27. also there seemed to be a problem because of

the 1st Iraq war deployment

http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/research/papers/1992/92082800.html

- here's some more from the transcript

Q. Mr. President, yesterday you said the reason you were sending in the military is because the size of the disaster is so much larger than originally anticipated. Sir, why didn't we know sooner that hundreds of thousands of people have been left homeless?

The President. I think one of the reasons is you've got a lot of isolated areas. Secondly, I don't know that there was a large discrepancy in numbers of people that are out of their homes. But as I said, yesterday we received the request for massive numbers of troops, and yesterday we responded within several hours. I think that will be Governor Chiles' understanding, too.

But look, if any Federal official is trying to blame a State official, I want it to stop. If any State official is trying to blame the Federal official or local official, that's not constructive. I know it makes very good, wonderful debate, but it doesn't help anything. What we're trying to do is work together here. I am determined that from the Federal Government's standpoint we give maximum cooperation to local and State officials. And that's the way it's going to be.

There is no point getting into blame and this ``who shot John'' thing that I know everybody's fascinated with. I don't want that, and I don't want one single Federal official trying to be in the blame-assigning business. I've given you the facts here today. I think Governor Chiles will understand that those are the facts. The important thing is to help the people.

[Mr Rabble]

24. Dear g-d I hate these people.

[Robb]

30. Tell me about it. (Kick)

:kick: