Last Sunday, the theoretically “moderate” Congressman Christopher Shays (R-CT) appeared on Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer.
You may remember Shays from his brutal excoriation of failed former FEMA head Mike Brown:
“What would you like for me to do, congressman?” Brown asked the Connecticut Republican.
“That’s why I’m happy you left,” Shays said, “because that kind of, you know, look in the lights like a deer, tells me that you weren’t capable to do the job.”
While Shays collected accolades from the local media, those of us who had heard this faux-moderate song-and-dance before waited for the music to stop.
Apparently, it is now officially time to play the blame game.
But we can start from the beginning and we can say that in New Orleans, the mayor totally failed. The governor of Louisiana totally failed. And then FEMA failed. I mean, all three just fell apart.
…
BLITZER: I want you to respond to all of that, but do it briefly, Congressman Shays. Then I’ll let Congressman Thompson respond. Because there’s a suggestion that [Brown]’s being made a scapegoat. But go ahead and respond to what you heard during the committee hearing this week, Congressman Shays.
SHAYS: First off, 90 percent of the response is local and state. So the burden is clear on local and state governments. But when local and state governments can’t meet the need, the federal government and FEMA is supposed to step in.
That’s the official word from a member of the “bipartisan” committee investigating the Katrina response: yeah, Mike Brown and FEMA messed up, but the vast majority of blame for the failure goes to Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco (surprise, surprise: the Democrats).
This despite Blanco’s declaration of a state of emergency the Friday before the storm his.
This despite Blanco begging for federal assistance the Saturday before the storm hit.
This despite Bush declaring a state of emergency the same day that authorized the DHS and FEMA to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures.
This despite the fact that Brown waited five hours after the storm hit before bothering to dispatch Homeland Security employees to the region, and then gave them two days to arrive.
The most massive natural disaster in U.S. history.
A local and state government hopelessley undermanned, begging the federal government for help.
A truly pathetic federal effort headed by an inept crony while the President kept up his busy vacation schedule.
Thousands dead.
And Chris Shays thinks that 90% of the blame ought to go to the state and local officials.
Look, clearly the response of Nagin and Blanco was less effective than it could have been, but they were in way over their heads. When local and state governments need help, they have to be able to turn to the federal government.
If they ask for help, and the federal government, through massive incompetance, fails to provide it, that’s on the feds. To imply that the blame should be divided equally is disturbing; to claim that the vast majority isn’t reserved for the federal government borders on the criminal.
But it’s time to play the Blame Game, and the Blame Game is nothing if not partisan.
And as we’ve come to expect, when things get partisan, Shays hews to the party line.
