Sleep took precedence over Tim Russert's interview with Ray Nagin this morning, though I'm anxious to read the transcript. I'm wondering how tough Russert was on the New Orleans mayor.
I caught a bit of his interview with John M. Barry, author of Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America and, according to MTP's web page, "the man who repeatedly warned officials at all levels of government about the catastrophic effects of a major hurricane hitting New Orleans, Dr. Ivor van Heerden, Director of the Center for the Study of Public Health Impacts of Hurricanes and the Deputy Director of L.S.U.'s Hurricane Center."
From what I saw, Russert was wallowing in blaming the Bush administration. So what else is new?
Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu had a busy Sunday morning.
She appeared on Face the Nation, where she was calm and composed. Because Bob Schieffer is her ally in the business of bashing Bush, there wasn't any confrontation.
However, Landrieu's appearance on Fox News Sunday was a different story.
She was in the studio with Chris Wallace and David Vitter was interviewed from Houston.
Vitter clarified his frequently quoted "F grade" statement by saying he was referring to the response of ALL levels of government. He definitely came off as a steady leader compared to the other senator from Louisiana.
Landrieu had a complete meltdown. I think after her segment she probably needed to be sedated.
When Wallace confronted her with the photo of all the flooded buses that weren't used by the state or local governments to evacuate citizens from New Orleans, she went nuts, Howard Dean-style.
Wallace tried to get her to be rational, but it was a losing battle.
He asked why the buses weren't used in an evacuation. She responded that they couldn't be used because they were under water. When Wallace tried to explain that the buses weren't flooded before the levees broke, she became even more combative, refusing to address Wallace's simple question.
Without a doubt, Landrieu's performance should make the Fox News Sunday highlight reel.
On ABC's This Week, George Stephanopoulos interviewed Barack Obama.
As I speculated last week, I believe he's being groomed to be Hillary Clinton's running mate for 2008. I'm certain of it.
I was flipping between FOX and ABC, so I didn't catch anywhere near all of the interview.
Brit Hume and Juan Williams were at each other's throats. It was hard to tear myself away from the spectacle. When I did turn to ABC, I found Obama to be evasive and completely incapable of giving a straight answer.
In regard to the federal government's response to Katrina, I did hear Obama say that the "administration has an empathy deficit."
Steph showed a clip of Dean's comments from his September 9 appearance on CNN, when Dean said:
"John Roberts' legal career has been about taking away every protection for young girls and women who want to participate in sports, for African-Americans and Hispanics, who want the equal same right to vote as everybody else, for taking away for women who believe they should determine what kind of health care they have, instead of having politicians do it.
"His entire legal career appears to be about making sure those folks don't have the same rights everybody else does. That's probably not the right thing to do two weeks after a disaster, where certain members of society clearly did not have the same protections that everybody else did because of their circumstances. Americans are fair people and they want a sense of justice. I know Judge Roberts loves the law. I'm not sure he loves the American people."
When Steph asked if Dean went too far, Obama danced around the question. Hillary would have been proud.
Did Steph press him to provide a direct answer? Are you kidding?
Obama wouldn't condemn Dean for his hateful and misleading comments. Cut through the smoke and mirrors, and you find that Mr. Moderate Obama is as far Left as Dean.
I know life doesn't stop because today is the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America.
Nonetheless, I wish the focus today could be on the victims and heroes of that Tuesday four years ago and on the freedom that we cherish. I found it depressing to watch all the political posturing and the Hurricane Katrina blame game continue to play out. I ache for the nation to unify and to pull through this crisis together.
Just two weeks after our country was hit by an enormous natural disaster, one that destroyed so much property and devastated so many, many lives, it's very disheartening to think about how divided we are.
To be sure, those days after 9/11, when we banded together, were an aberration.
Wasn't it a beautiful aberration?
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