White House Responds

People have said that President Bush didn't lie about invading Iraq on the pretext of finding weapons of mass destruction. He just skewed the intelligence reports to mislead the American people. Okay. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt about that. But when he told a reporter four days after Hurricane Katrina hit that "nobody could foresee the breach of the levees," when if fact that's exactly what he was told, then it's more than misleading people, it's a lie. And if he lied about that, what else did he lie about?

Via democrats.org

The White House responded quickly to the bombshell AP report that President Bush was fully briefed on the potential of the levees breaking and lied to the American people four days later during an interview with ABC News when he uttered the infamous words, "I don't think anyone could have anticipated the breach of the levees." Associated Press:

I hope people don't draw conclusions from the president getting a single briefing," Bush spokesman Trent Duffy said, citing a variety of orders and disaster declarations Bush signed before the storm made landfall. "He received multiple briefings from multiple officials, and he was completely engaged at all times.

He's right ... who knows how much more incompetence would be uncovered were the White House completely forthcoming with the information requested by the Katrina Commission in Congress. Here is what the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs had to say about the cooperation level of the executive branch:

The problems begin at the White House, where there has been a near total lack of cooperation that has made it impossible, in my opinion, for us to do the thorough investigation we have a responsibility to do.

And completely engaged? Hogwash. Unlike the Associated Press video, we didn't need to wait six months to know the president refused to cut short his vaction and return to Washington, D.C. to deal with the crisis from the White House. In fact, none of us will ever forget the photo of President Bush playing country rock star as New Orleans drowned.

This adminstration failed the American people before the storm hit, as it made landfall, through the investigation, and continues to this day. Mistakes are made, to be sure, the storm was unprecedented in its scope. However, lying to the American people in an attempt to shirk responsiblity for what ended up completely transcending minor blunders, and then refusing to cooperate with the U.S. Senate during an investigation tasked at learning the lessons necessary to prevent a sequel is completely unforgivable.