Administration, Sebelius back off argument over National Guard / LJWorld.com

Archive for Wednesday, May 9, 2007

By Jennifer Loven - Associated Press Writer

May 9, 2007

Bush and Sebelius at odds over federal response to Greensburg

The White House is calling the federal response to the Greensburg tornado a success story - this statement comes one day after Governor Sebelius said federal response to the city has been slowed because needed manpower and equipment is in Iraq. Enlarge video

Washington — The Bush administration and Kansas' governor started Tuesday pointing fingers at each other over the response to last week's devastating tornado. By lunchtime, both sides had backed down.

With President Bush set to travel to now-razed Greensburg, Kan., today to view the destruction wrought by Friday's 205 mph twister, the Democratic governor said she planned to address with Bush her contention that National Guard deployments to Iraq hampered the disaster response.

"I don't think there is any question if you are missing trucks, Humvees and helicopters that the response is going to be slower," she said Monday. "The real victims here will be the residents of Greensburg because the recovery will be at a slower pace."

Sebelius said with other states facing similar limitations, "stuff that we would have borrowed is gone."

White House press secretary Tony Snow fought back aggressively.

In an approach reminiscent of the blame game played by the White House with another Democratic governor, Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana, after the federal government's botched response to Hurricane Katrina, Snow at first said the fault for any slow response would be Sebelius'. He said she should have followed procedure by finding gaps and then asking the federal government to fill them - but didn't.

"If you don't request it, you're not going to get it," he told reporters Tuesday morning.

Snow said no one had asked for heavy equipment. "As far as we know, the only thing the governor has requested are FM radios," the spokesman said.

Well, not exactly.

At Snow's second, midday briefing with reporters, he offered that it turned out that the state had requested several items that the federal government supplied - those radios, and also a mobile command center and a mobile office building, an urban search and rescue team and coordination on extra Blackhawk helicopters.

Snow recounted a phone conversation on Tuesday between Sebelius and Bush's White House-based homeland security adviser, Fran Townsend, in which the governor said she was pleased with the federal performance on the tornado and had everything she needed.

About the same time, Sebelius was doing her own backpedal. Her spokeswoman, Nicole Corcoran, said the governor didn't mean to imply that the state was ill-equipped to deal with this storm. Sebelius' comments about National Guard equipment were instead meant as a warning, she said.

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9 May 2007
at 5:52 a.m.

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oldgoof (Anonymous) says…

While the Goof accepts the need to replace our equipment, and acknowledges Sebelius' raising of this issue for two years, he does think the Administration has a very good point here: Nothing requested means nothing needed.
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The Goof was a little astounded to see how the national media jumped on the Gov's comments to make 24-48 hours of national news out of this. With the prez coming to Kiowa Co today, the story line will probably continue, so I guess it will be more like 72 hours.
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And despite all the positive attention, Goof presumes the people of Greensburg would just as soon take the cash equivalent (instead of the actual visit) of what it takes to fly Air Force One, the additional personnel, the attendant extra costs of security, etc etc etc to vist their burg. It would easily pay for a new city hall, or a new fire department, or provide their 25% local match for a lot more.
9 May 2007
at 10:51 a.m.

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Rationalanimal (Anonymous) says…

In a state rich with “can-do in the face of any obstacles” figues like Eisenhower, Earhart, Chrysler, and Dole, Sebelius is a quiter. She's either been on the phone with someone at the national DNC taking pointers on how to exploit the situation for party's political gain, or she truly is incapable of getting the job done in the face of adversity. Real leadership is NOT being able to solve problems when everything is perfect. Real leadership is by-dang getting the job done no matter what you're confronted with. Kathleen Sebelius, way below Kansas' standards and tradition of leadership.