SPECIAL HURRICANE KATRINA EDITION
September 9, 2005
Maybe They Were Reading Times
Editorials
"Why were developers permitted to destroy wetlands and barrier islands that
could have held back the hurricane's surge? Why was Congress, before it wandered
off to vacation, engaged in slashing the budget for correcting some of the
gaping holes in the area's flood protection?"
- New York Times editorial page, September 1.
vs.
"Anyone who cares about responsible budgeting and the health of America's rivers
and wetlands should pay attention to a bill now before the Senate Committee on
Environment and Public Works. The bill would shovel $17 billion at the Army
Corps of Engineers for flood control and other water-related projects - this at
a time when President Bush is asking for major cuts in Medicaid and other
important domestic programs. Among these projects is a $2.7 billion boondoggle
on the Mississippi River that has twice flunked inspection by the National
Academy of Sciences. The Government Accountability Office and other watchdogs
accuse the corps of routinely inflating the economic benefits of its projects.
And environmentalists blame it for turning free-flowing rivers into lifeless
canals and destroying millions of acres of wetlands - usually in the name of
flood control and navigation but mostly to satisfy Congress's appetite for pork.
This is a bad piece of legislation."
- New York Times editorial page, April 13.
MS Gov. Haley Barbour's
Suspicious Praise of the Federal Government
"[Mississippi Gov. Haley] Barbour's praise of the federal efforts has put him at
odds with some other Mississippi officials who have bemoaned the slow response
in their areas and has put him at risk of sounding like a Pollyanna to
Mississippians still struggling in the storm's aftermath. But the strategy is
unsurprising for a canny political strategist like Mr. Barbour - a former
political director in the Reagan White House, chairman of the Republican Party,
and powerful Washington lobbyist - who won the governorship two years ago by in
part emphasizing the strength of his close ties to President Bush."
- Michael Cooper, September 7.
News or Editorial?
"The federal government's slow response to suffering inflicted by Hurricane
Katrina, on top of the continued bloodshed in Iraq and high gasoline prices, has
eaten into Mr. Bush's political strength, emboldening his opponents."
- Richard Stevenson, September 6.
"Until Friday, Mr. Bush had all but invited the torrent of criticism that he was
out of touch with the scale of the human tragedy unfolding in Louisiana, often
sounding off-key in the context of what may prove to be the worst natural
disaster the nation has suffered."
- Richard Stevenson, September 3.
Keeping Bush on Defense
"Mr. Bush did not go into the heart of the city's devastation, where thousands
of largely poor, black refugees have raged at the government's response to one
of the worst natural disasters in American history. The White House cited
security concerns and worries about causing more chaos as the reasons for
keeping Mr. Bush away from the streets and the New Orleans Superdome, where
refugees have lived in squalor and lawlessness for days.Throughout his day, Mr.
Bush did not address the shocking images of the desperate and dying on
television, even when he was asked by a reporter in Biloxi 'why the richest
nation on earth can't get food and water to those people that need it.' Mr. Bush
sidestepped the question and responded that helicopters had rescued people from
rooftops and 'thousands of peoples' lives have been saved immediately, and
that's good news.'"
- Elisabeth Bumiller, September 3.
Katrina - Bush's Vietnam?
"Perhaps not since Richard M. Nixon faced Vietnam-era tumult abroad and at home
has an American president had to meet quite the combination of foreign war,
domestic tribulations and political division that President Bush now confronts,
from the Persian Gulf to the Gulf Coast to Capitol Hill.Attorney General
Alberto R. Gonzales has drawn intense fire from some conservatives, who see him
as insufficiently opposed to abortion. But his up-by-the-bootstraps background
might now have extraordinary appeal for a president facing criticism that he
failed to show adequate sensitivity to, or even particular initial awareness of,
the plight of the overwhelmingly poor and minority population left behind in New
Orleans when the storm and flooding struck."
- Todd Purdum, September 5.
How Dare Anyone Criticize N.O.
Officials for N.O. Flooding
"In a reflection of what has long been a hallmark of Mr. Rove's tough political
style, the administration is also working to shift the blame away from the White
House and toward officials of New Orleans and Louisiana who, as it happens, are
Democrats. 'The way that emergency operations act under the law is the
responsibility and the power, the authority, to order an evacuation rests with
state and local officials," Mr. Chertoff said in his television interview. 'The
federal government comes in and supports those officials.' That line of argument
was echoed throughout the day, in harsher language, by Republicans reflecting
the White House line."
- Adam Nagourney and Anne Kornblut, September 5.
Perhaps Because Most People in
New Orleans are Black?
"Most of those left behind in New Orleans are black."
- Text box to September 2 story by David Gonzalez.
Bush's "Imperial Act"
"Other Democrats cast Mr. Bush's first survey of the damage, from his window on
Air Force One two days after the hurricane hit, as an imperial act removed from
the suffering of the people below."
- Elisabeth Bumiller, September 2.
Worthy of MoveOn.org
"The populism of Huey Long was financially corrupt, but when it came to the
welfare of people, it was caring. The churchgoing cultural populism of George
Bush has given the United States an administration that worries about the House
of Saud and the welfare of oil companies while the poor drown in their attics
and their sons and daughters die in foreign deserts."
- Former Times Executive Editor Howell Raines in a column for the
September 1 edition of the Los Angeles Times.
But Let's Do It Anyway
"But this seems like the wrong moment to dwell on fault-finding, or even to
point out that it took what may become the worst natural disaster in American
history to pry President Bush out of his vacation."
- From an August 31 editorial.
