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Audacity of Truth
Big Government- Hot Air
- Michelle Malkin
- Wheeling & dealing: Snowe pow-wows with Obama; Landrieu, Schumer, Daschle behind the scenes
- Saturday in the Senate: Cash for Cloture; Reid gets 60; Update: 8:15pm Eastern cloture vote – 60-39; Voinovich absent; Dems invoke Teddy Kennedy; Reid: “Ted would be happy.”
- Another day, another Berkeley tantrum
- Jake Tapper
- Lynn Sweet
Taking responsibility equates to taking “full responsibility”
Or so you’d think if you read this Reuters article (emphasis added):
The discovery of at least 44 bodies in an abandoned hospital in New Orleans raised new questions about the response to Hurricane Katrina on Tuesday as President George W. Bush took full responsibility for government failures in handling the disaster.
My hat would be off to Reuters if that was what he actually did but it’s not. Here’s what he said (emphasis added):
“Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government,” Bush said at joint White House news conference with the president of Iraq.
“To the extent the federal government didn’t fully do its job right, I take responsibility,” Bush said.
In other words, he took responsibility for the feds part in the so-called slow response to Hurricane Katrina. He did not take responsibility for gross (in more ways than one) state and local incompetency for those officials’ handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. As Rob at Say Anything points out, that is an important distinction to make. But some in the media, in their haste to pin all the blame on Bush, have misreported this story to make it appear that Bush is saying "yes, it was all the feds fault. We screwed up." That’s not what’s happening here, but the Reuters spin makes you think so, anyway.
Jeff Goldstein sums up the thoughts of many (including myself) on the President’s admitting responsibility:
It’s sad that this country has come to this, demanding, by way of a relentless press, that a sitting President—in order to open the political steam valve and let the partisan hot air dissipate—is forced to deliver one of these generic and non-specific mea culpas.
That’s exactly what’s happened here.
Reminder: Don’t forget that the President will be addressing the nation tomorrow night from La. at 9PM ET.
(Linking up with the OTB Traffic Jam)
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If Bush thought this “confession” would make everyone love him, he was mistaken. He needs to take Bolton back from the UN and put him in charge of the administration PR. Unless the legislature wanted FEMA to have an agent in every firetruck and squad car, there is NO liability on FEMA. FEMA is an insurance company, not a first responder.
I think Bush made a wise move with the statement.
It merely says reorganize and do better. And fix the cumbersome problems of state/federal command that occured here.
The worst thing the Democrats can do is keep Katrina/NO in the news. People aren’t fools. Slowly they will contrast the utter chaos produced by La. authorities to their visual ideal of good government.
Calmness is exactly what people want in a leader; for better or worse Bush quietly shows up for work every day and says things will be OK.
The Democratic Party, of which I am still an agonized member, will overplay this just as they have every issue since Bush took office. Cindy and JJ, the Als – Sharpton and Gore – Maxine and Nancy, Charles and Ted, Blanco and Landrieu will be in the news turning off voters from coast to coast.
For some risqué satire:
Blame Bush!
The way I read President Bush, he said what he said (and it was carefully worded) because he thought it was the right thing to do. Now let’s hear Landreau, Blanco and Nagin do the same thing.
Ken: “It merely says reorganize and do better. And fix the cumbersome problems of state/federal command that occured here.”
I think that is a great point and was exactly what the President was trying to get across. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at how the media is spinning his comments …
Camo: That’s a fantastic site
I visit it often.
Evon: I doubt you’ll hear anything remotely like that coming from Landrieu and Nagin. And the only way you’ll hear it from Blanco is if you happen to catch her discussing it between network interviews with her press sec.
It’s like they don’t even take a breath. Condemn Bush for not taking the blame, then comdemn Bush for taking the blame (or what passes for “taking the blame” in looney-land).
ST Your response to my comment gave me a good laugh. I love to laugh.
Sister Toldjah,
Governor Blanco did take responsibility for what went wrong at the state level.
LINK
“We all know that there were failures at every level of government: state, federal and local. At the state level, we must take a careful look at what went wrong and make sure it never happens again. The buck stops here, and as your governor, I take full responsibility,” Blanco told lawmakers in a special meeting of the Louisiana Legislature.
At least she is willing to acknowledge things went wrong at the state level. You’re not willing to acknowledge things went wrong at the federal government level even though President Bush has acknowledged this.
“Governor Blanco did take responsibility for what went wrong at the state level.”
Yes, finally. At the time I posted my comment, however, she had not (outside of that off the record comment CNN caught on tape in between network interviews).
“You’re not willing to acknowledge things went wrong at the federal government level”
That’s not true. I’ve acknowledged there were response problems at the federal level but maintain that the bulk of the problems were on the shoulders of local and state officials and I still maintain that. It is the people trying to blame ALL of this on President Bush who need to understand that it wasn’t all his fault. But generally, partisans won’t even entertain that possibility, much less actually admit it. I KNOW there were problems at all levels. Unfortunately, others out there only want to pin the blame at one person. That’s a real shame. Please don’t waste your time trying to convince me otherwise because I’ve posted about it and read about it enough to know better than to pin all of this on one person.
ST wrote, “I’ve acknowledged there were response problems at the federal level but maintain that the bulk of the problems were on the shoulders of local and state officials”
I concur.
It’s funny how liberals know better what we think than our own selves.
And it’s funny how liberals give us the option to respond by researching and setting the record straight on an issue or be quiet and let them mischaracterize without responding to them.
Then after we respond make additional accusations about our response.