The Conservative Zone

The Mayor of New Orleans and Governor of Louisiana are doing their damnedest to lay the blame for all of the anarchy and everything at the feet of President Bush. Christopher Ruddy has some words on that subject: Don't Blame Bush for Katrina.

George Bush and the federal government are not to blame for the disaster we have witnessed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

In fact, the primary responsibility for the disaster response lies with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and other local officials.

Yet leading Democrats and their allies in the major media are clearly using this disaster for political purposes and ignoring one obvious fact.

This fact – which needs to be repeated and remembered – is that in our country, state and local governments have primary responsibility in dealing with local disasters.

New Orleans had a plan, a clear plan, a workable plan. You can see it here, and for some reason nobody in the government followed it.

I can't answer your questions as to why it wasn't followed. All I can say is the human toll in the devastation left in Katrina's wake is to be laid at the feet of the local officials who were responsible in getting their citizens out of the area. Granted, FEMA and DHS should get some of the blame for the lag in their response time. However, the lack of National Guard troops for security and quelling looters is the purview of the State government, not the Federal.

I hope the surviving citizens of New Orleans remember who failed them in their hour of need, and it wasn't George Bush.