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February 10, 2006
White House Loses More "Truth" Yardage
The NY Times reported today that the Bush administration knew about the levee breach the night it happened, which clearly contradicts administration contentions that it found out about the problem the following day. (NYT)
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Bush administration officials said they had been caught by surprise when they were told on Tuesday, Aug. 30, that a levee had broken, allowing floodwaters to engulf New Orleans.
Investigators have found evidence that federal officials at the White House and elsewhere learned of the levee break in New Orleans earlier than was first suggested.
But Congressional investigators have now learned that an eyewitness account of the flooding from a federal emergency official reached the Homeland Security Department's headquarters starting at 9:27 p.m. the day before, and the White House itself at midnight....
But the alert did not seem to register. Even the next morning, President Bush, on vacation in Texas, was feeling relieved that New Orleans had "dodged the bullet," he later recalled. Mr. Chertoff, similarly confident, flew Tuesday to Atlanta for a briefing on avian flu. With power out from the high winds and movement limited, even news reporters in New Orleans remained unaware of the full extent of the levee breaches until Tuesday.
Since this is front page news in the paper of record I don't expect this to be new to you, however what is significant, once again is the discovery of one more deception, i.e. that they didn't know, and one more example of gross mismanagement of the disaster, which continues to this day. This definitely is another yardage loss for the President. It remains to be seen if the Democrats will be able to turn it to their advantage, considering how successful they have been up to now.
Posted by Chip Spear at February 10, 2006 11:40 AM