Conyers: Newsweek Nails New Orleans Debacle ("How Bush Blew It")

[paineinthearse]

http://www.conyersblog.us/archives/00000235.htm

Blogged by JC on 09.11.05 @ 03:48 PM ET

Newsweek Nails New Orleans Debacle

For your reading, I would recommend this article for the most recent Newsweek entitled, "How Bush Blew It."

When I return to DC on Monday, we will need to keep the drumbeat alive for justice and accountability.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9287434/site/newsweek/

How Bush Blew It

Bureaucratic timidity. Bad phone lines. And a failure of imagination. Why the government was so slow to respond to catastrophe.

By Evan Thomas
Newsweek

Sept. 19, 2005 issue - It's a standing joke among the president's top aides: who gets to deliver the bad news? Warm and hearty in public, Bush can be cold and snappish in private, and aides sometimes cringe before the displeasure of the president of the United States, or, as he is known in West Wing jargon, POTUS. The bad news on this early morning, Tuesday, Aug. 30, some 24 hours after Hurricane Katrina had ripped through New Orleans, was that the president would have to cut short his five-week vacation by a couple of days and return to Washington. The president's chief of staff, Andrew Card; his deputy chief of staff, Joe Hagin; his counselor, Dan Bartlett, and his spokesman, Scott McClellan, held a conference call to discuss the question of the president's early return and the delicate task of telling him. Hagin, it was decided, as senior aide on the ground, would do the deed.

The president did not growl this time. He had already decided to return to Washington and hold a meeting of his top advisers on the following day, Wednesday. This would give them a day to get back from their vacations and their staffs to work up some ideas about what to do in the aftermath of the storm. President Bush knew the storm and its consequences had been bad; but he didn't quite realize how bad.

The reality, say several aides who did not wish to be quoted because it might displease the president, did not really sink in until Thursday night. Some White House staffers were watching the evening news and thought the president needed to see the horrific reports coming out of New Orleans. Counselor Bartlett made up a DVD of the newscasts so Bush could see them in their entirety as he flew down to the Gulf Coast the next morning on Air Force One.

How this could be—how the president of the United States could have even less "situational awareness," as they say in the military, than the average American about the worst natural disaster in a century—is one of the more perplexing and troubling chapters in a story that, despite moments of heroism and acts of great generosity, ranks as a national disgrace.

more.....

p.s. While at the NSNBC site, please be sure to "rate" the article.

[Contrary1]

1. A Must Read ! Kicking so it doesn't get lost...

Thanks for posting this, paineinthearse. Unbelievable.

If you have time, read the article immediately following,
"The Children: Some Are Found, All Are Lost".

[Clark2008]

2. I just love John Conyers.

I may not say it enough.

But, he's got the sweetest, kindest countenance I've ever seen.

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. Om my, we must not disturb the little prince

WTF?

He spent the whole week clueless on vacation. Give me a break.

Is it time for him to go yet? We can't afford a President that goes AWOL every time there is a disaster.

[TayTay]

4. I read that article this morning

What a clueless bunch they are.

Thanks for posting this.

[senseandsensibility]

5. kick

Please consider nominating this.

[paineinthearse]

9. I wish I could nt

[MaineDem]

10. Article already on Greatest page

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x155705

[paineinthearse]

11. Not speaking for senseandsensability, but

I think the sentiment is to nominate this thread out of respect for John Conyers' works, not the Newsweek article itself (which, by the way, is also on the home page).

From which other elected officials do we hear words to the effect of "When I return to DC on Monday, we will need to keep the drumbeat alive for justice and accountability?"

[faithnotgreed]

6. he is everywhere speaking about everything that needs to be

would that it got some coverage

oh well at least msnbc has him online

[ProudDad]

7. Great article.

I posted a link to it on the other Conyers thread.

Kick.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2082727#2083242

[faithfulcitizen]

8. Seemed to be a fair assessment, however, it implicates Blanco, imo

She comes across as holding things up, and on a power trip. :shrug: