What was the story on the Bush-Blanco dispute over control?

joemurphy

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Sat Sep-10-05 10:21 AM
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What was the story on the Bush-Blanco dispute over control?

Edited on Sat Sep-10-05 10:25 AM by joemurphy

I was listening to NPR's report on the chronology of the Katrina story.

If I remember correctly, the report stated that the hurricane hit on Monday. By Wednesday, people were complaining of having no food or water at the Superdome (some of whom had been staying at the Dome since Saturday).

On Thursday, Bush flew into the NOLA airport on Air Force One and told Blanco and Nagin that he would only send in Federal troops if they signed over control of the NOPD and the Louisiana National Guard Troops to the White House Government. The Report implied that Bush wanted unifed control over everyone. The Report said Blanco initially told Bush she needed 24 hours to think the matter over.

The NPR Report never explained why Bush wanted Blanco to surrender control of the Guard troops to Bush. Apparently, if memory serves, she refused to do so, although I'm not sure when that refusal was communicated to Bush.

The NPR Report also stated that the 82nd Airborne then came into New Orleans the next day anyway -- implying that Bush's demanding control of the National Guard wasn't necessary anyway. Note too, Bush apparently could have simply placed the Guard under Pentagon control on his own initiative and gotten around Blanco if he wanted to anyway.

Then there are these reports from a couple of newspaper sources -- including the Washington Post:

"Washington, too, was slow to react to the crisis. The Pentagon, under Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, was reluctant for the military to take a lead role in disaster relief, a job traditionally performed by FEMA and by the National Guard, which is commanded by state governors. President Bush could have "federalized" the National Guard in an instant. That's what his father, President George H.W. Bush, did after the Los Angeles riots in 1992. Back then, the Justice Department sent Robert Mueller, a jut-jawed ex-Marine (who is now FBI director), to take charge, showing, in effect, that the cavalry had arrived. FEMA's current head, Michael Brown, has appeared over his head and even a little clueless in news interviews. He is far from the sort of take-charge presence New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani conveyed after 9/11.

Up to now, the Bush administration has not hesitated to sweep aside the opinions of lawyers on such matters as prisoners' rights. But after Katrina, a strange paralysis set in. For days, Bush's top advisers argued over legal niceties about who was in charge, according to three White House officials who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the negotiations. Beginning early in the week, Justice Department lawyers presented arguments for federalizing the Guard, but Defense Department lawyers fretted about untrained 19-year-olds trying to enforce local laws, according to a senior law-enforcement official who requested anonymity citing the delicate nature of the discussions

While Washington debated, the situation in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast deteriorated. Bush traveled to the region in part to work out a deal with local officials to establish a clearer chain of command. By the weekend, federal officials said there could be tens of thousands of troops in New Orleans in short order. Saturday, Bush pledged to return to the region on Monday�and to deploy 7,000 additional active-duty troops under the Pentagon's control. But for many, the help was arriving too late. Officials worked through the weekend trying to hammer out the jurisdictional issues."

***

"Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D). Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state's emergency operations center said Saturday.

The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. "Quite frankly, if they'd been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals," said the source, who does not have the authority to speak publicly.

A senior administration official said that Bush has clear legal authority to federalize National Guard units to quell civil disturbances under the Insurrection Act and will continue to try to unify the chains of command that are split among the president, the Louisiana governor and the New Orleans mayor."

So here's my question: Why did Bush insist that Pentagon control of the National Guard and the New Orleans Police Department be preconditions for initiating Federal military action? Demanding it seems to have delayed the Federal military relief effort. The answer to this question may prove to be an important issue in the days to come.

There have been a number of Republican reports claiming Blanco erred (and delayed the relief effort) by failing to immediately give Bush the control that he wanted.

Can anyone answer my question? I have asked about it twice before and have never gotten a clear and satisfactory answer. Here's one of my prior threads on it:

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph... >