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Lieberman Abandons New Orleans and the Gulf

by: tparty

Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 15:32:52 PM EDT

joesaho has a diary up linking to a great new video from Brave New Films on Katrina, with a link to their efforts to get Congress to pass Sen. Dodd's Gulf Coast Recovery Bill of 2007.

But while one of Connecticut's Senators is doing his best to get NOLA and the Gulf Coast back on track, the other is all too predictably still blocking any meaningful investigation of what happened in the White House during those horrific days two years ago this week, from his perch as Chairman of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

Joe Lieberman abdicated that responsibility just days after endorsing the "surge" in January:

Jan. 11, 2007 - Sen. Joe Lieberman, the only Democrat to endorse President Bush's new plan for Iraq, has quietly backed away from his pre-election demands that the White House turn over potentially embarrassing documents relating to its handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans....
But now that he chairs the homeland panel-and is in a position to subpoena the records-Lieberman has decided not to pursue the material, according to Leslie Phillips, the senator's chief committee spokeswoman. "The senator now intends to focus his attention on the future security of the American people and other matters and does not expect to revisit the White House's role in Katrina," she told NEWSWEEK.

More from January:

Spokeswoman Leslie Philips said Friday that Lieberman, the new chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, wouldn't issue subpoenas to the White House as he called for less than a year ago.
"The senator believes a more productive use of his time and that of his staff is to make sure legislative fixes are implemented and ensure that a response to a future catastrophe is better," Philips said. "The senator feels the American public has already concluded that the White House response was sorely lacking. Rather than take on the White House and open an old fight, he believes he can be more productive by moving forward."

And more:

Lieberman said he was not interested in "looking back, and assigning blame would be a waste of Congress' time." Responding to yesterday's protestor, Lieberman said, "We don't want to play 'gotcha' anymore."

Of course, Joe Lieberman - along with his fellow traveler in obsequiousness Susan Collins - were calling for us to "move forward" from the "blame game" just days after the storm hit, promising that the time for an investigation would come... later:

"Obviously, what Michael Chertoff and Michael Brown did in this circumstance would be of great interest in our inquiry... the last thing we want to do now is reach judgments about who should stay and who should go."

And again:

"Look, Mr. Brown works for President Bush, and Sec. Chertoff... I wish we could focus now on [the recovery], and not get too much into the "blame game" right now.... We've committed to a no-holds-barred investigation... particularly for our committee... we want to know why it didn't work."

So, two years later... is it time to reach those "judgments," yet?

And what exactly happened to that "no-holds-barred investigation" you promised the people of New Orleans - and the people of the nation - Senator?

Joe might not want to look back today. But Digby does, linking to ThinkProgress' Katrina timeline (below the fold):

tparty :: Lieberman Abandons New Orleans and the Gulf

Monday, August 29
7AM CDT - KATRINA MAKES LANDFALL AS A CATEGORY 4 HURRICANE [CNN]
7:30 AM CDT - BUSH ADMINISTRATION NOTIFIED OF THE LEVEE BREACH: The administration finds out that a levee in New Orleans was breached. On this day, 28 "government agencies, from local Louisiana parishes to the White House, [reported that] that New Orleans levees" were breached. [AP]
8AM CDT - MAYOR NAGIN REPORTS THAT WATER IS FLOWING OVER LEVEE: "I've gotten reports this morning that there is already water coming over some of the levee systems. In the lower ninth ward, we've had one of our pumping stations to stop operating, so we will have significant flooding, it is just a matter of how much." [NBC's "Today Show"]
11:13 AM CDT - WHITE HOUSE CIRCULATES INTERNAL MEMO ABOUT LEVEE BREACH: "Flooding is significant throughout the region and a levee in New Orleans has reportedly been breached sending 6-8 feet of water throughout the 9th ward area of the city." [AP]
MORNING - BROWN WARNS BUSH ABOUT THE POTENTIAL DEVASTATION OF KATRINA: In a briefing, Brown warned Bush, "This is, to put it mildly, the big one, I think." He also voiced concerns that the government may not have the capacity to "respond to a catastrophe within a catastrophe" and that the Superdome was ill-equipped to be a refuge of last resort. [AP]
MORNING - MAYFIELD WARNS BUSH ABOUT THE TOPPING OF THE LEVEES: In the same briefing, Max Mayfield, National Hurricane Center Director, warns, "This is a category 5 hurricane, very similar to Hurricane Andrew in the maximum intensity, but there's a big big difference. This hurricane is much larger than Andrew ever was. I also want to make absolutely clear to everyone that the greatest potential for large loss of lives is still in the coastal areas from the storm surge. … I don't think anyone can tell you with any confidence right now whether the levees will be topped or not, but there's obviously a very very grave concern." [AP]
MORNING - BUSH CALLS SECRETARY CHERTOFF TO DISCUSS IMMIGRATION: "I spoke to Mike Chertoff today - he's the head of the Department of Homeland Security. I knew people would want me to discuss this issue [immigration], so we got us an airplane on - a telephone on Air Force One, so I called him. I said, are you working with the governor? He said, you bet we are." [White House]
mccainbirthday.jpg MORNING - BUSH SHARES BIRTHDAY CAKE PHOTO-OP WITH SEN. JOHN MCCAIN [White House]
11AM CDT - MICHAEL BROWN FINALLY REQUESTS THAT DHS DISPATCH 1,000 EMPLOYEES TO REGION, GIVES THEM TWO DAYS TO ARRIVE: "Brown's memo to Chertoff described Katrina as 'this near catastrophic event' but otherwise lacked any urgent language. The memo politely ended, 'Thank you for your consideration in helping us to meet our responsibilities.'" [AP]
LATE MORNING - LEVEE BREACHED: "A large section of the vital 17th Street Canal levee, where it connects to the brand new 'hurricane proof' Old Hammond Highway bridge, gave way late Monday morning in Bucktown after Katrina's fiercest winds were well north." [Times-Picayune]
11AM CDT - BUSH VISITS ARIZONA RESORT TO PROMOTE MEDICARE DRUG BENEFIT: "This new bill I signed says, if you're a senior and you like the way things are today, you're in good shape, don't change. But, by the way, there's a lot of different options for you. And we're here to talk about what that means to our seniors." [White House]
4:30PM CDT - BUSH TRAVELS TO CALIFORNIA SENIOR CENTER TO DISCUSS MEDICARE DRUG BENEFIT: "We've got some folks up here who are concerned about their Social Security or Medicare. Joan Geist is with us. … I could tell - she was looking at me when I first walked in the room to meet her, she was wondering whether or not old George W. is going to take away her Social Security check." [White House]
8PM CDT - RUMSFELD ATTENDS SAN DIEGO PADRES BASEBALL GAME: Rumsfeld "joined Padres President John Moores in the owner's box…at Petco Park." [Editor & Publisher]
8PM CDT - GOV. BLANCO AGAIN REQUESTS ASSISTANCE FROM BUSH: "Mr. President, we need your help. We need everything you've got." [Newsweek]
LATE PM - BUSH GOES TO BED WITHOUT ACTING ON BLANCO'S REQUESTS [Newsweek]

Tags: Joe Lieberman, Katrina, Susan Collins, (All Tags)

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Lieberman Abandons New Orleans and the Gulf | 8 comments

Joe Lieberman on Michael Brown (4.00 / 3)

by: Scarce @ Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 14:37:02 PM CDT

by: you @ soon

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thanks (4.00 / 1)

added that to the post

by: tparty @ Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 14:44:50 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Lieberman's Katrina hearing in New Orleans 1/29/07 (4.00 / 2)

by: Scarce @ Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 14:38:16 PM CDT

by: you @ soon

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Lieberman is complicit in the failures at DHS (4.00 / 1)

I wrote at length about Lieberman's central role in degrading FEMA during the formation of the Department of Homeland Security during the Lieberman/Lamont Senate campaign.

http://www.dailykos....

Lieberman ignored all the advice to keep FEMA separate from Homeland Security (including the advice of Sen. Jeffords, then chair of the Environment and Public Works committee which used to oversee FEMA) in order to consolidate power within his own fiefdom of DHS. The end result was the capability of all the elements of Homeland Security were degraded through incompetence (in no small part do to the incompentence of Collins and Lieberman). Only the Coast Guard continued to perform as expected - largely because it's chain of command and leadership were largely untouched by Lieberman's "improvements".

Lieberman also failed to do so much as a cursory reference check of Michael Brown. From the Brown confirmation hearing at FEMA:

Lieberman: "Before joining the Bush Administration, I note from [Mr. Brown's] resume, he served as execu- tive director of the Independent Electrical Contractors in Denver. In the early 1980s, Mr. Brown served as staff director of the Oklahoma Senate's Finance Com- mittee, while serving on the Edmund, Oklahoma, City Council. He ran for Congress in the sixth district, and, in what I think is particularly useful experience, early in his career, was assistant city manager in Edmond, with responsibility for police, fire and emergency services."

Much of that resume is false and would have been revealed as false if Lieberman's vaunted staff had bothered to so much as call to check Brown's employment history. Burger King does a better job of background checks on new hires than Sen. Lieberman does chairing a Senate committee.

Of all of Lieberman's many offenses it's his complicity in the disaster of Katrina that bothers me the most.

by: joejoejoe @ Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 15:03:37 PM CDT

by: you @ soon

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From Spike Lee's "When the Levees Broke" (4.00 / 4)

This says it all.

by: ctblogger @ Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 15:12:08 PM CDT

by: you @ soon

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Condi (4.00 / 2)

If the federal government's response had nothing to do with color as Ms. Condoleeza Rice attested to, then it must have something to do with economic class.

I bet the slow tepid response of FEMA with NOLA would have been completely different had Katrina tracked much farther north and made landfall in Long Island, NY and Fairfield County, CT.

The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice. --Martin Luther King, Jr.

by: connecticutyankee @ Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 17:26:46 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Wake up, Joe LIEberman! (4.00 / 4)

Besides my main occupation, I am known around my parts as a local historian. My definition of progress is being able to bring the past with us into the future. Tparty's above quotes of LIEberman, remind me of this. How the hell do we know where we are going without knowing where we've been. I strongly apply this to Katrina! Without an investigation, Joe, how will we know the mistakes that the White House and FEMA made so we can correct them for the future?

STOP PLAYING PARTISAN POLITICS JOE WITH PEOPLE'S LIVES!

The senator now intends to focus his attention on the future security of the American people and other matters and does not expect to revisit the White House's role in Katrina

....ensure that a response to a future catastrophe is better

he believes he can be more productive by moving forward

Lieberman said he was not interested in "looking back, and assigning blame would be a waste of Congress' time.

by: Missy's Brother @ Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 15:19:16 PM CDT

by: you @ soon

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Saving New Orleans and the Gulf Coast (4.00 / 3)

The level of incompetence, ignorance and political lethargy surrounding Gulf Coast recovery efforts is enough to make your head spin.

I'll put it in terms that even Joe Lieberman can understand: Imagine if each year a foreign country were to confiscate 25 square miles of American soil - a land mass the size of Manhattan. …. Joe Lieberman would be calling for World War III.

Yet that's the amount of land that we're losing in Louisiana right now, and neither Lieberman, Collins, Shays, nor most other government officials are doing much about it.

Each year, massive amounts of the Louisiana coast get swallowed up by gulf waters, destroying wetlands that provide roughly 30% of America's seafood (shrimp, blue crab and oysters), serves as a sanctuary for migratory birds and other wildlife, and acts as a buffer against devastating hurricanes like Katrina and Rita.
The main problem is the levee system around the Mississippi River that diverts silt and nutrients away from the bayou and dumps it out into the continental shelf. Oil pipeline canals contribute to the erosion too. Because of the erosion, and because silt from the Mississippi no longer replenishes the bayou, the wetlands are vanishing at an alarming rate. [Mike Tidwell, in his book Bayou Farewell, documents this devastation - I highly recommend the book.]

The way to save New Orleans and the bayou - a vital source of America's food supply, economic vitality, and culture - is to divert a section of the Mississippi River back into the bayou. The Coast 2050 Project and related projects like the Third Delta Conveyance Channel are attempts to solve the problem. The Water Resources Development Act of 2006, which offered a small amount of funding for some of these projects, passed in the Senate and House, but the two versions of the bill never made it out of conference committee and failed to become law.

This is a national emergency that few people know about. Chris Dodd's recovery plan for New Orleans doesn't address the Gulf Coast, and Barack Obama's Gulf Coast recovery plan addresses some of these issues but not enough of them.

As for the city of New Orleans, it makes very little sense to restore it without also restoring the wetlands that protect it and its citizens from future disasters.

by: CaptCT @ Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 17:36:28 PM CDT

by: you @ soon

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Lieberman Abandons New Orleans and the Gulf | 8 comments

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