Date: September 6, 2005 10:33:44 PM PDT
Subject: "Breaking News"
Apparently, the "Voice of America" (or "American Pravda"?) news item below seriously understates the tone of a two-hour discussion in closed chamber meetings between the Cabinet and members of Congress.
Tonight on CNN, on Aaron Brown's "Newsnight," a reporter who had sources inside described the meeting as "very contentious," with elected officials (Republicans as well as Democrats) pressing for an immediate investigation of the Administration's handling of the Katrina crisis, calling for the dismantling of FEMA and a full accounting of Homeland Security's actions during the hurricane crisis.
Most telling of all, however, was one telling event described by the reporter:
Before he learned that hearings were already being organized (spearheaded by a fellow Republican, unless I'm mistaken), majority leader Tom DeLay told CNN reporters that NO HEARINGS WILL BE HELD --he vowed TO PERSONALLY PREVENT ANY INVESTIGATION, NOW OR LATER, of the Bush Administration's "alleged" mishandling of the Katrina crisis -- which, by the way, resulted in the most horrific "collateral damage" on the home front -- the unnecessary and in all probability avoidable death of thousands of Americans in Louisiana -- even more than have died, thanks to The (same) Powers That Be, in 9/11 or in Iraq ...
The reported intensity of DeLay's antagonism toward any investigation whatsoever, whether Congressional or independent, that might run the risk of revealing incompetence (or worse) within the Republicans' "fortress" in Washington --reminiscent of the Bush Administration's opposition to, and continued obstruction of, any investigation that might reveal the FACTS of the events leading up to 9/11-- was all too revealing ... of MANY things ...
Alongside the video of a clueless, lip-biting Dubya sitting in the classroom for SEVEN MINUTES after he was informed of a major "terrorist attack on American soil," we need to start playing --in our minds-- an endless loop of Tom DeLay's diatribe, reeking of Republican hubris, and do everything in OUR power to GUARANTEE THE INVESTIGATION 'THEY' FEAR ...
Republicans and Democrats say providing relief to victims of hurricane Katrina must be the top priority in coming days and weeks as Congress gets back to work in Washington, D.C. But while there is much bipartisan agreement on the need for an investigation into the federal government response, Democrats are focusing criticism on President Bush who they say must assume much of the responsibility.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay says he does not think a special commission is needed to examine what went wrong with rescue and relief operations, modeled on the panel that investigated failures before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Senate Democratic Minority Leader Harry Reid disagrees. "We are going to have an independent commission to study what went wrong. People may not do it today or think it's a good idea today, but mark my word. It IS going to happen," he said.
Senator Reid and Congressman DeLay were among congressional leaders meeting with President Bush Tuesday.
But Mr. DeLay was adamant Republicans will not allow any of their key policy priorities to fall victim to what they see as attempts by opposition Democrats to use the hurricane response controversy to weaken President Bush.
That means no price controls to deal with rising gasoline prices, no reduction in gas taxes, no taxes aimed at oil companies that might be benefiting from high prices, and no rollback of income tax cuts approved by the Republican-controlled Congress.
Democrats for their part say everything should be on the table, including Bush administration tax cuts they say have hurt poor and middle class Americans.
House Democrats take broad aim at what say have been Republican and administration policies that created the conditions for failure. "When you saw the stories about the poor people in New Orleans being left behind, we could see them being left behind because they were in the water, they were very visible," he said. "But we have a federal budget policy which is leaving behind the poor and the middle class all across the board," said Wisconsin Congressman David Obey.
House Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi says the president must assume most of the responsibility for the slow initial government response. "The buck (blame) stops at the president's desk. The president said he is going to lead the investigation into what went wrong. For starters, he need only look in the mirror. HE appointed a person to head FEMA who had absolutely no credentials to head a Federal Emergency Management Agency," he said.
Mrs. Pelosi has urged President Bush to fire FEMA Director Michael Brown.
Republican Mississippi Senator Trent Lott added his voice to a growing number of lawmakers who feel FEMA should be taken out of the Homeland Security Department, where it was moved after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. "We should never have put FEMA in [the] Homeland Security [Department]. Heck, we thought about it. Heck, we did it. Who are we going to blame that on? We did that," he said.
House Majority Leader DeLay says that would be premature and objects to those who place all the blame on FEMA. "There were mistakes made by everybody involved. But to say that FEMA was a total failure is to say that those hard-working people who, when I got there Sunday, had been up working 24 hours a day, no sleep, doing the things that needed to be done to save lives on the ground in New Orleans, and that's not what is going-on on the ground. There were decisions that needed to be made that weren't made, and we shouldn't be dwelling on that issue," he said.
As the political debate surrounding hurricane relief heats up, House and Senate Republicans confirmed plans to move ahead with new legislation providing the next installment of aid for hurricane relief and cleanup, put at 40-billion dollars on top of 10-point-five billion approved last week.
A Senate committee held a hearing into the effects of damage from hurricane Katrina on gasoline prices, amid calls by some lawmakers for an investigation of alleged price-gouging. A similar hearing is scheduled Wednesday in the House Energy Committee.
Also, the House Government Reform Committee holds an oversight hearing next week on the government response to hurricane Katrina.
__________________________
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone.
It is topic A in the southeastern part of the country. And it is topic A on Capitol Hill as well, what happened last week, why it happened, the way it happened. State and federal officials not getting -- didn't get it is the general sense tonight. And federal officials didn't get it either.
At a meeting on Capitol Hill tonight, members of Congress took Cabinet officials to task. This meeting was contentious. It just broke up a short time ago.
CNN's Ed Henry is in Washington tonight and begins it for us -- Ed.
ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Aaron.
That's right, the blame game in full swing now. This meeting was very contentious, we're hearing from lawmakers who have been coming out. It lasted for well over two hours. It's really been rough, not only on Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, but, as you mentioned, a whole slew of Bush Cabinet secretaries who came in to brief the entire House of Representatives behind closed doors.
We're told that those Cabinet secretaries started out by giving relatively rosy reports about how things are turning out for the better, things are getting better all the time. The first question came from a Republican, not a Democrat. And I'm told that this Republican lawmaker stood up and basically said, all of you deserve failing grades, despite what you're saying right now. The response was a disaster.
Then a Democratic lawmaker stood up and asked Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, whether or not he would give a grade for the FEMA director who is underneath him, FEMA Director Michael Brown. Mr. Chertoff ducked that question.
And what's very interesting here is, the backdrop is that, unlike after 9/11, when you saw congressional leaders coming together and even singing "God Bless America" on the Capitol steps, we're seeing Democrats really pounding this administration hard. They're taking some hits. And Republican leaders are starting to really circle the wagons.
Just a few minutes ago, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay came out of this contentious meeting and said, it's really not the federal government's fault. It's really the local government's fault in Louisiana. Take a listen to what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. TOM DELAY (R-TX), MAJORITY LEADER: That the emergency response system was set up to work from the bottom up. And it's the local officials trying to handle the problem. When they can't handle the problem, they go to the state, and the state does what they can do. And if they need assistance from FEMA and the federal government, they ask for it and it's delivered.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: Now, Tom DeLay also said that he feels that, in Alabama and Mississippi, it was much better. If you take a look at one possible reason why he's saying that, there are Republican governors in Mississippi and Alabama, a Democratic governor in Louisiana, of course.
And also, Michael Brown, the FEMA director, earlier today, very contentious meeting at the White House as well, congressional leaders and President Bush, where House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, we are told, basically said that the FEMA director is incompetent and called on the president to fire him.
And now CNN has just obtained a memo this evening that's going to add even more grist for the mill. This memo was reported on earlier by the Associated Press. And it basically is a memo from the FEMA director, Michael Brown, to Mr. Chertoff basically asking for more than 1,000 volunteers right after the storm hit, for more than 1,000 volunteers to rush to the Gulf region in order to deal with the aftermath of Katrina.
This is obviously going to lead even more critics to say, why was he getting -- the FEMA director getting more voluntaries to respond after the storm hit, not before? Now, it's important to note that Homeland Security officials are telling CNN that this is not that significant because in fact they had some people prepositioned.
But, again, this is going to be even more grist for the mill for the people calling for Michael Brown's head -- Aaron.
BROWN: I want to go back to your meeting in a second, but just a couple more things on the memo.
I wouldn't exactly use the word rush. He gives these 1,000 Homeland Securities officials two days to arrive on the scene, according to the memo, which I looked at just before coming up. That included one day of training before they headed for the Gulf. And he said that one of their responsibilities would be to ensure that FEMA was portrayed in a positive light -- [from] some concern about the P.R. impact of the storm itself.
The memo was written five hours after the storm made landfall in New Orleans. On the DeLay point, it's a little difficult to compare Mississippi and Alabama to New Orleans. These are apples and oranges in terms of what the disaster itself was. All that said, where does this all go in the Congress? Is there going to be a move to move FEMA out of Homeland Security? Do we get the head of Michael Brown and then it all goes away? Other than the kind of sniping that's going on, where does this head?
HENRY: Well, I think, first of all, you're right. FEMA is very likely to be pulled out of the Department of Homeland Security, and here's why. Even Republican Senator Trent Lott, who lost his own home in the storm, said today that he believes it was a mistake.
Important to note, not just by the Bush administration, but by this Congress, Democrats and Republicans, who voted for the Department of Homeland Security and decided to -- instead of having FEMA as an independent agency -- as Trent Lott says, it should be an independent agency that reports directly to the big man, as Trent Lott said, so there's none of this red tape in the middle. There's a FEMA director reporting directly to the president.
Where does this go? Very interesting development as well tonight. Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton has been calling for an independent commission, beyond the sniping, to actually investigate what went wrong, so it doesn't happen again. Tom DeLay said, no way, we're not going to do that.
And then it's very interesting that, even more importantly, there have been -- talk about a lot of congressional hearings. Well, Republican Congressman Tom Davis earlier tonight announced he's moving ahead with hearings in the House in order to investigate what went wrong. Tom DeLay did not know about that until word started spreading.
[DeLay] just told some of us reporters that those hearings are not going forward.
Tom DeLay is going to stop these hearings from going forward. That's going to leave Democrats to charge that Republicans on the Hill are trying to sweep this under the carpet and they're trying to cover up for the Bush administration. I don't think it's going to be just sniping.
I think this is going to start really boiling up as to what happened.
BROWN: I want to move on from all of this, but just two points on that. Whatever the House does, the Senate has a vote in all of this. And the Senate seems pretty much determined to hold hearings.
And the other observation, it occurred to me today that this in many respects is exactly like the post-9/11 landscape. When people were calling for an independent commission to investigate, the administration resisted, resisted, and resisted some more. And finally the weight of the moment overwhelmed them.
HENRY: It did.
And I think a lot of critics are also noting that, as you say, after 9/11, you had this independent commission. What about Congress in all this? Lawmakers, especially Democrats, but some Republicans, have had a good time in the last few days beating up on the Bush administration. But the fact of the matter is that a major job on Capitol Hill for the Congress, people in both parties, is to exercise oversight over these agencies like FEMA.
And some people are going to start wondering, where has Congress been? Not just where the administration, whether it was the Bush administration or Clinton administration, in recent years in dealing with the levees and the funding of those in New Orleans, and dealing with FEMA and its oversight, what has Congress been doing? -- Aaron.
BROWN: Ed, thank you. Good, quick work tonight. Thank you, Ed Henry, on the Hill.
