Friday, October 14, 2005

FEMA in Mississippi

Bob McElvaine sets the record straight on the Republican claims that FEMA did just fine in Mississippi in the Katrina crisis: FEMA mess didn't miss Mississippi by Robert McElvaine Baltimore Sun 10/12/05.

The state's Republican governor and former Republican National Committee chairman Haley Barbour, a possible 2008 presidential candidate, has loyally defended Bush's FEMA for their performance in Mississippi.  Bob writes:

In fact, as any number of Mississippians in the heavily Republican region flattened by Katrina will attest, FEMA was every bit as incompetent in Mississippi as it was in Louisiana. "You can try to throw as much as you can on the backs of Louisianians," the conservative Democratic Rep. Gene Taylor of Mississippi told Mr. Brown at a House committee hearing, "but I'm a witness as to what happened in Mississippi. You folks fell on your face."

Most prominent Mississippi Republicans have not concurred with Mr. Barbour's rosy assessment of the federal disaster efforts. Sen. Trent Lott flatly stated that Mississippians "are disenchanted" with the federal response in their state.

By nine days after the storm, Mr. Lott had concluded that FEMA wasn't up to the job. "We're just going around them," the former Senate Republican leader said. When the Harrison County sheriff told Mr. Lott that FEMA was diverting supplies, Mr. Lott's response was to the point: "If anyone from FEMA tries to confiscate anything, arrest them."

Republican Rep. Charles W. Pickering Jr. has severely criticized FEMA on several counts.

When nasty, highly partisan reactionaries like Trent "Strom was great in '48" Lott and Chip Pickering are refusing to toe the Party line, you can figure things must have gone plenty wrong.

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