The New York Times has a good, lengthy Katrina roundup recounting some of the devastating details of the hurricane and the even more devastating details of the inept and incompetent response -- especially from the White House. One terrible detail about the convention center:
Before the last people were evacuated that Saturday, several bodies were dumped near a door, and two or three babies died of dehydration, emergency medics have said.There's also a good timeline detailing who did what and when. But the New York Times makes one big mistake on Bush's timeline. It says that on Tuesday August 30 Bush "cuts his vacation short."
That is wrong, wrong, wrong. On Tuesday, Bush ANNOUNCED he would cut his vacation short. On Tuesday, Bush was in California at a political rally and -- instead of heading straight to DC so he could FINALLY start to focus on this crisis first thing Wednesday -- Bush went BACK to Crawford, Texas for another night's vacation. He arrived back in DC on Wednesday, August 31.
This is not splitting hairs. If Bush announced he would shorten his record-setting five week vacation by one day, would you state he "cut his vacation short" on the day that announcement was made (even if it was day two of the 35+ days of vacation) or on the day he actually ended it? Naturally, it would be on the day he actually ended it. Bush does not deserve to have it recorded he ended his absurdly long vacation on Tuesday when he actually delayed going back to work till Wednesday.
The first few hours and days of a crisis are crucial and during those first three days after the hurricane struck, when the entire country was glued to its TVs and watching in horror as the Gulf region and especially New Orleans sank into despair, Bush stayed on vacation.
The timeline -- which lists the activities of The Gov. of Louisiana, the mayor of New Orleans, Bush, Chertoff and Brown -- does NOT include Republican Governor Haley Barbour, Secretary of State Condi Rice or most importantly Vice President Dick Cheney. The NYT presumably didn't list Cheney because it would be so damning and "political" to state the fact that during this crisis the Vice President STAYED ON VACATION for six days.
I remain astonished at how the MSM ignores the elephant in the room. Never in our nation's history has a natural or man-made disaster struck the country -- not Pearl Harbor or 9-11 or the San Francisco earthquake (in which gov't responders arrived in two days) -- quite simply NEVER has a nationwide crisis occurred with so many of our top leaders staying or going on vacation.
Here's the letter I would write to the New York Times:
Your hurricane Katrina timeline contains a crucial mistake. President Bush ended his record-setting five week vacation on Wednesday, August 31, not a day earlier. (He merely announced it on Tuesday.) After a jaunt to California on Tuesday, Bush returned to Crawford, Texas for one more night's rest while flood waters were rising and potentially thousands were dying.
This is not splitting hairs. In an emergency, the first hours and days are crucial. And during the worst natural disaster in our nation's history, President Bush stayed on vacation. He stayed on vacation for two days after the hurricane struck. The vice president stayed on vacation for five days after the hurricane struck, not being seen in Washington DC until he appeared at a photo op on Saturday, September 3. While dozens of countries were calling us with offers of aid and assistance, the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice went on vacation to New York City, saw a Broadway show and reportedly went shopping for shoes.
Criticism of the political leaders at all levels of the government continue to fly. But the simple fact remains that if the Governor of Louisiana and the mayor of New Orleans did a bad job, at least they were on the job. Bush and Cheney and Rice didn't even bother to show up. During the worst natural disaster in our country's history, they were on vacation. When are they going to apologize to the American people for their gross dereliction of duty?
