New Orleans disaster and Bush

This may be the only way any of my letters to the leftist Daytona Beach News-Journal ever see publication:


To the Editor
Daytona Beach News-Journal

Re: Crescent City Blues by Howell Raines

Editor,

I was stunned by the musings of Howell Raines, the disgraced former executive editor of the New York Times. He praised the Democratic leadership of Louisiana, begrudgingly acknowledged similar kudos for the Republican governor of Mississippi and condemned the "dilatory performance of George W. Bush."

When this disaster in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama is finally put to bed, any honest assessment of what went wrong will have to address the absolute incompetence of the mayor of New Orleans, its city administration, emergency services and fire and police departments. Likewise, the governor of Louisiana has been described over the past week as looking like "a deer caught in the headlights." Apparently the city management of New Orleans and Louisiana government is prepared for big parties and sellouts to big oil but not a major disaster.

Here are the facts of the case: Federal government can’t just step in and take over a disaster if there is an existing local and/or regional government structure still standing and functioning, even if those entities begin to stumble. The way our system works requires those authorities request the assistance of the federal government. It has been difficult to see any level of Louisiana local and state government cooperating with each other, much less getting into step with federal agencies.

Think of the repercussions the president would face had he ordered a complete takeover of Louisiana. He would be pilloried even more furiously by Democrats and everything would be his fault.

Of course, that's the case anyway, isn't it?

By the way, Raines lost his job because he sponsored and protected a minority journalist who was incompetent and regularly filed false stories. Do you see a pattern here?