The way it’s been going, you knew this was coming, didn’t you?
WASHINGTON (CNN) — The House majority leader late Tuesday tried to deflect criticism of the federal response to Hurricane Katrina by saying “the emergency response system was set up to work from the bottom up,” then announced a short time later that House hearings examining that response had been canceled.
Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said House Republican leaders instead want a joint House-Senate panel set up to conduct a “congressional review” of the issue.
Tempers flared Tuesday during a contentious closed-door meeting between House members and Cabinet secretaries in charge of directing Katrina relief efforts. A Republican representative stood up and said, “All of you deserve failing grades. The response was a disaster,” CNN was told by lawmakers emerging from the meeting.
But DeLay countered that assessment later in a news conference by saying that the onus for responding to emergencies fell to local officials.
“It’s the local officials trying to handle the problem. When they can’t handle the problem, they go to the state, and the state does what they can to, and if they need assistance from FEMA and the federal government they ask for it and it’s delivered,” DeLay said.
He added that Alabama and Mississippi did a much better job of responding quickly than Louisiana. Alabama and Mississippi have Republican governors.
And that’s going to be the line. Republican partisans may buy it.
But independent voters — and many thoughtful Republicans — won’t. And aren’t.
UPDATE: Linda Chavez writes about problems at the local level. What continues to be striking is that those who want to make sure every level gets its share of the blame continue to insist that anyone raising questions about the federal job performance is only trying to blame Bush. Not true.
Chavez, for instance, characterizes criticism as coming “from those who believe George W. Bush is responsible for all of life’s misfortunes.” That’s an argument used to discredit criticism. Is she suggesting that Republicans who are criticizing the administration “believe George Bush is responsible for all of life’s misfortunes?”
If these folks truly sought to strengthen our internal security, they would rake the feds, state and locals over the coals. However, it’s clear from DeLay’s comments the machinery is now in place to attempt to minimize federal mistakes, bolster Republican governors, and go after Louisiana’s officials who are Democrats to both weaken Democrats and keep the focus of the administration.
In short: to totally pull the political trigger to turn this into yet another unfettered Democrat-Republican battle. DeLay is activating the GOP base. Will they buy it?
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.