Former President Beavis’ book has a chapter on Hurricane Katrina.According to Bush, the only mistakes he made were PR ones: he coulda shoulda spun it better. This is, of course, patent nonsense but that’s how the W in denial book tour is spinning it.
According to Bush, the ones who made the big mistakes were mostly Louisiana Democrats. First, Senator Mary Landrieu was guilty of being emotional as her hometown drowned. Imagine that. Second, Governor Meemaw (aka Kathleen Babineaux Blanco) should have let him federalize the Louisiana National Guard to deal with the “insurrection” in New Orleans. As with so much else, Bush is dead wrong on that score. That was actually Blanco’s finest moment during the crisis: there was *no* insurrection, it was an attempt by W’s handlers to spin the event in their favor.
The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina destroyed Blanco’s political career. Despite a tendency to speak English as a second language, she was a pretty good Governor who had a good shot at re-election before the levees broke. I miss Gov. Meemaw’s malaprops but I miss having a Governor who gives a shit about the Gret Stet; especially higher education. Her successor seems poised tohot foot it out of town despite his claims that he’s “got the job I want.” PBJ still has high approval ratings but they’re poised to crater during the next legislative session when many painful and excessive budget cuts are expected to be made.
Anyway, Katie Moore of WWL-TV caught up with former Governor Meemaw at theCarville-Matalin festthat I had to miss yesterday because I was waiting for a repairman who never showed: