Blame it on Someone

White House Enacts a Plan to Ease Political Damage - New York Times: "IIn 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. "

Watch the liars spin and duck and run for cover. In an effort to move the blame, they actually stated, and many people now believe, that the Louisiana governor did not declare an emergency. One doesn't want to suggest that state and local governments did everything they should have done, one simply observes that there is a lot of noise about Louisiana, but strangely nothing is being said about Mississippi. Here's a snippet from the timeline at Think Progress:

Think Progress — KATRINA TIMELINE: "Saturday, August 27 5AM — KATRINA UPGRADED TO CATEGORY 3 HURRICANE [CNN] GOV. BLANCO ASKS BUSH TO DECLARE FEDERAL STATE OF EMERGENCY IN LOUISIANA: “I have determined that this incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments, and that supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a disaster.” [Office of the Governor] FEDERAL EMERGENCY DECLARED, DHS AND FEMA GIVEN FULL AUTHORITY TO RESPOND TO KATRINA: “Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency.” [White House]"

It would be my observation that the public is quite patient when people take responsibility and then fix things. Of course, that implies that the current Administration is capable of fixing anything at all. Rather than take responsibility, however, this Administration is orchestrating a partisan shift of blame. If Blanco is in some sense responsible for the pathetic federal response, why are we not also talking about the perfidy of Haley Barbour?