WSJ editorial falsely claimed Bush is only elected official to accept responsibility for Katrina disaster
A September 15 Wall Street Journal editorial falsely claimed that President Bush "is the only elected official who has so far accepted any public 'responsibility' " for the response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster and attacked Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, a Democrat, for "still blaming everyone else." In fact, on September 14, Blanco said before the Louisiana legislature: "[A]s your governor, I take full responsibility."
The Journal editorial referred to Bush's September 13 statement to reporters that "Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government, and to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility." But, contrary to the Journal's claim, Blanco also accepted responsibility. In a speech before the Louisiana legislature on September 14, Blanco said: "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." The Associated Press reported Blanco's comments on September 14.
From the September 15 Wall Street Journal editorial:
The political trauma that has followed Katrina is almost entirely a result of the slow, haphazard government response in the first days after the storm hit. Mayor Nagin had an evacuation plan sitting in a drawer but never got the buses in place to implement it. He then blamed everyone else. Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco froze amid the crisis and failed to deploy the National Guard properly to protect those stranded at the Convention Center and Superdome. She is still blaming everyone else.
FEMA was overwhelmed by the magnitude of the storm, and former director Michael Brown showed he was clueless about events that he could see merely by turning on his TV set. Notably, he is the only public official so far to lose his job, just as Mr. Bush is the only elected official who has so far accepted any public "responsibility." Alas, tonight the President isn't likely to assail the Department of Homeland Security that he helped to create, but he at least ought to admit that federal and state disaster duties and communication need to be better sorted out. He could also praise the Pentagon's relief success.
"Notably, he is the only public official so far to lose his job, just as Mr. Bush is the only elected official who has so far accepted any public 'responsibility.'"
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Actually, W didn't even do that. He said he would take responsibility insofar as the government failed. He doesn't believe the government failed, so he believes there is no responsibility for him to take.
The Department of the Interior trumpeted the fact that they posted pictures of Gale Norton on their web site, and they said she "expressed compassion" for the hurricane victims. Expressing compassion, showing compassion, and acting on that compassion are three different things, and Norton has done the least. Show us you have compassion, Gale, don't tell us. Use your self-promotion budget (about $500 per day) to actually get some food and water to the victims, not to pay your PR staff and personal photographers.
W has done the same. He has given lip service to accepting "responsibility," but until his actions show that he is ready to take that responsibility and work to find out what happened and keep it from happening again, there has been no true acceptance of responsibility from anyone in this administration.
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This approaches the "low blow" category for Media Matters.
The AP story on Blanco's speech was posted at 8:45pm Eastern time on the 14th.
The WSJ editorial was posted only a little over three hours later, at 12:01 am Eastern time, on the 15th. One can assume it was actually written several hours before that.
It is a stretch by Media Matters to report this as some sort of egregious error by the WSJ. At the time the piece was likely written, WSJ's claim was likely true.
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"The AP story on Blanco's speech was posted at 8:45pm Eastern time on the 14th. "
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Misinformation from bannedagain.
The story was broadcast well before 8:45 pm. At the very least as early as 8 pm EST, when it was a top story on MSNBC's Countdown.
Furthermore, Blanco made the statement in a special legislative session, held during the daytime.
The WSJ had plenty of time to rewrite their editorial.
I would not say this is a low blow. A low blow is like outing an undercover CIA agent. This may be a little bit of a stretch.
If the WSJ issued a retraction, I'm sure MMFA would also.
Of course, as a good Methodist, 'W' believes in the doctrine of substitutionary atonement. So I doubt if "accepting responsibility' entails any sort of negative consequences for him. Except for his approval ratings, of course...
If Bush was so so responsible, he would make it a priority to have an independent investigation into the disaster response.