On the March 5 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday, Boston Globe Washington bureau chief Nina Easton attributed President Bush's failure to adequately respond to Hurricane Katrina to what she suggested was his desire not “to be an ambulance chaser, as he saw [President] Bill Clinton being” following the riots that broke out in Los Angeles after the acquittal of four white police officers charged with assault in the March 3, 1991, beating of Rodney King, an African-American. Easton cited Clinton's May 3, 1992, visit to Los Angeles following the riots that erupted April 29, 1992, as an example of Clinton's “ambulance chas[ing].”

Easton's label of “ambulance chaser” notwithstanding, Clinton went to Los Angeles four days after the riots erupted; Bush visited the Gulf Coast on September 2, 2005, four days after the hurricane made landfall.

In response to host Chris Wallace, who asked Easton to comment on “the political damage to this [Bush] administration that began with [Hurricane] Katrina,” Easton stated that Bush “did suffer” damage following the hurricane, stressing that he “doesn't want to be an ambulance chaser, as he saw Bill Clinton being, somebody who goes in after -- post-riots in Los Angeles and so forth and wants to be there feeling everybody's pain.” Easton contrasted Clinton's visit to Los Angeles with Bush's activities following the hurricane, stating: “On the other hand, he went off -- after Katrina hit, he went to San Diego. He went back to Texas. He gave speeches on other topics before he came back to Washington, before he ended up back on the ground on the Gulf, and that hurt.”

From the March 5 edition of Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, which also featured Weekly Standard editor William Kristol:

WALLACE: Nina, I want to pick up on something that Bill said, and that is the political damage to this administration that began with Katrina. The Democrats immediately pounced on this, called for an independent investigation. Can they continue to get political mileage on Katrina?

EASTON: Yeah, I think Katrina is the gift that keeps on giving for the Democrats, absolutely. And I think the president did suffer from this. He doesn't want to be an ambulance chaser, as he saw Bill Clinton being, somebody who goes in after -- post-riots in Los Angeles and so forth and wants to be there feeling everybody's pain.

On the other hand, he went off -- after Katrina hit, he went to San Diego. He went back to Texas. He gave speeches on other topics before he came back to Washington, before he ended up back on the ground on the Gulf, and that hurt.