KR Coverage Undermines Bush's Claims

This story from KR really makes the point that I was trying to make in my last post.  Bush has plenty of authority, he just didn't use it well during Katrina.

The speed with which the federal government marshaled significant military and other resources to evacuate, rescue and care for victims of Hurricane Rita raises new questions about why Washington was so slow to respond to Hurricane Katrina less than four weeks earlier.

The Bush administration says it's researching whether the federal government needs to have greater authority to respond to disasters - and whether the military should be in charge. 

The response to Rita, however, suggests that the government had plenty of authority to respond to Katrina and that what was lacking during Katrina was an understanding of when to use that authority.

His recent discussions about the need for more authority are just a political attempt to hide his leadership failures during Katrina.

KR should be congratulated on their coverage of Katrina.  More than any other news outlet, they have really gotten to the bottom of what went on within government during Katrina, and they haven't been afraid to call it straight when the facts make the case that Bush's folks dropped the ball.