The Bush White House – determined not to take responsibility for their failures over Katrina – is waging a political campaign to blame anyone else they can find. The Center for American Progress reports:

KATRINA
Rove's Finger Pointing

On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said, "This is not a time to get into any finger pointing or politics or anything of that nature." Apparently, Karl Rove didn't get the message. The New York Times reports that Rove and White House communications director Dan Bartlett have "rolled out a plan this weekend to contain the political damage from the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina." The core of the strategy is "to shift the blame away from the White House and toward officials of New Orleans and Louisiana."

SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL LIES TO WASHINGTON POST: The Washington Post, citing an anonymous "senior administration official," reported on Sunday that Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco "still had not declared a state of emergency." That wasn't true. Hours later the Post ran a correction, acknowledging that Blanco "declared an emergency on Aug. 26." (Read it here.) Newsweek also reported that, as late as Sept. 1, Blanco was "hesitant to declare martial law or a state of emergency, which would have opened the door to more Pentagon help." The magazine has yet to issue a correction.

ADMINISTRATION ACKNOWLEDGED RESPONSIBILITY FOR RELIEF EFFORTS: The White House effort to shift the blame for the response to Katrina contradicts its public statements before the storm hit. An Aug. 27 declaration on the White House website "authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts." The order specifies that "FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency." Jane Bullock, former FEMA chief of staff, said, "The moment the president declared a federal disaster, it became a federal responsibility.… The federal government took ownership over the response." This is consistent with the DHS website which states plainly, "In the event of a terrorist attack, natural disaster or other large-scale emergency, the Department of Homeland Security will assume primary responsibility ... for ensuring that emergency response professionals are prepared for any situation. This will entail providing a coordinated, comprehensive federal response to any large-scale crisis and mounting a swift and effective recovery effort."

BUSH TRIES TO SHIFT BLAME: Now that things have gone poorly, the White House wants to pretend it wasn't in charge. President Bush said the magnitude of the storm "has created tremendous problems that have strained state and local capabilities. The result is that many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need, especially in New Orleans. And that is unacceptable." Dan Bartlett told the Washington Post, "The federal government stands ready to work with state and local officials to secure New Orleans and the state of Louisiana. The president will not let any form of bureaucracy get in the way of protecting the citizens of Louisiana." The message from Bush and Bartlett is that state officials were "slow to call for outside help." The reality is that Louisiana state officials reached out to the federal government for assistance before the storm hit. On Aug. 27, Gov. Blanco sent a detailed letter to President Bush requesting assistance because "this incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and affected local governments, and that supplementary Federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a disaster."

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