Governor Blanco Did Not Have To Ask "Mother May I" To Get Federal Help

Bush Administration officials are acting as if they were ready and able to provide stronger and quicker relief if only Governor Blanco had asked for it. 

With a disaster the size of Katrina, they didn't have to wait.  All they needed was an order from the vacationing Commander in Chief. 

The National Response Plan -- issued in January by Tom Ridge -- contains detailed instructions on how the federal government should mobilize in the event of a catastrophic event that "almost immediately exceeds resources normally available to State, local, tribal and private sector authorities." 

According to the Plan, the federal response is supposed to be "proactive" and employ "an expedited approach to the provision of Federal resources to save lives and contain the incident."  Furthermore, the system for state and local officials requesting help may be "temporarily suspended in the immediate aftermath of an incident of catastrophic magnitude."  It goes on to say that the coordination process "should not delay or impede the rapid mobilization and deployment of critical Federal resources." 

All the Plan was missing was a strong leader to take control of the situation and do what needed to be done.