\jeff{krimmel}

Evidence of Federal Ignorance

Local and state officials have been trading barbs with the federal government throughout the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, each side declaring the other has let the victims down. To be sure, local, state, and federal officials all take some blame in the chaotic and sometimes haphazard nature of the rescue and recovery efforts.

At least one “senior administration official” has tried to blame the governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco, for not declaring a state of emergency sooner. In fact, according to this official, Governor Blanco had not made such a declaration even as of September 3. The point here is that if the governor had not ordered a state of emergency, the federal government would have been effectively handcuffed in its attempts to help in the hurricane’s aftermath.

The problem with this argument? It’s false. The Washington Post originally ran with this official’s claim but later had to print a correction, noting Governor Blanco did indeed issue a state of emergency on August 26. From The Post’s correction,

On Sept. 4, the paper cited the “senior Bush official” as saying that as of the day before, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco “still had not declared a state of emergency.” As The Post noted in a correction, Blanco, a Democrat, had declared a state of emergency on Aug. 26.

Liberal bloggers have unloaded on The Post. Wrote Arianna Huffington: “Why were the Post reporters so willing to blindly accept the words of an administration official who obviously had a partisan agenda — and to grant the official anonymity?”

Post National Editor Michael Abramowitz calls the incident “a bad mistake” that happened right on deadline. “We all feel bad about that,” he says. “We should not have printed the information as background information, and it should have been checked. We fell down on the desk.”

I thought President Bush the other day was pleading for people not to play the blame game and focus on rescue and recovery efforts. Why, then, are senior officials in his own administration busy laying false attacks at the feet of the governor of Louisiana? Despicable.