Katrina Hall of Shame

from The Hurricane Katrina Hall of Shame...



"Hurricane Katrina vanden Heuvel!"
--Rush Limbaugh (Late August)

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"The destruction from [The Nation editor] Katrina vanden Heuvel is expected to be massive.... The poor and disabled are particularly likely to suffer from the effects of Katrina vanden Heuvel... Coming up: How to explain Katrina vanden Heuvel to your children..."
--National Review Editor Jonah Goldberg (8/30/05)

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A young [black] man walks through chest deep floodwater after looting a grocery store in New Orleans...

Two [white] residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store after Hurricane Katrina came through the area in New Orleans...

Captions at Yahoo News (8/30/05)

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Baseball Hall of Famer Dave Winfield wasn't the only VIP who joined Padres President John Moores in the owner's box last night at Petco Park. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, here to join President Bush at the North Island Naval Air Station today, took in the game, too.
--Copy in the San Diego Union-Tribune (8/30/05)

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"It makes no sense to spend billions of dollars to rebuild a city that's seven feet under sea level....It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed."
--House Speaker Dennis Hastert (8/31/05)

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"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."
--President Bush (9/1/05)

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"The federal government did not even know about the convention center people until today."
--FEMA director Michael Brown (9/1/05)

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"I have not heard a report of thousands of people in the convention center who don't have food and water."
--Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff (9/1/05)

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HALLIBURTON GETS KATRINA CONTRACT
--Headline (9/1/05)

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"Last night, we showed you the full force of a superpower government going to the rescue."
--Chris Matthews on MSNBC (9/1/05)

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"Elimination of the death tax would be a victory for fairness and job creation. Working together, we can help eliminate the burden of the death tax once and for all."
--Mass email from RNC Chair Ken Mehlman (9/1/05)

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"You simply get chills every time you see these poor individuals...many of these people, almost all of them that we see are so poor and they are so black..."
--Wolf Blitzer, CNN (9/1/05)

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"Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."
--President Bush (9/2/05)

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Out of the rubbles (sic) of Trent Lott's house---he's lost his entire house---there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch."
--George W. Bush (9/2/05)

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"The City of New Orleans and its residents owe the President a profound debt of gratitude."
--John Hinderaker, Powerline blog (9/2/05)

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"There's trucks?"
--President Bush (9/2/05)

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"...it was my belief, I'm trying to think of a better word than typical--that minimizes, any hurricane is bad--but we had the standard hurricane coming in here..."
--FEMA director Michael Brown (9/3/05)

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"Louisiana is a city that is largely underwater..."
--Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff (9/3/05)

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"Days before Katrina nearly wiped New Orleans off the map, 9,000 Jewish residents of Gaza were driven from their homes with the full support of the United States government. Could this be a playing out of prophesy?"
--Rick Scarborough (9/4/05)

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"I remember on Tuesday morning picking up newspapers and I saw headlines, 'New Orleans Dodged The Bullet.'"
--Chertoff (9/4/05)

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"When Air Force One dipped below the clouds on Tuesday so the president could peer out the window down at the disaster, the image was uncomfortably imperial."
--Newsweek (9/4/05). The president didn't fly over the area until Wednesday.

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"...but the media has a fascination with the blame game and instead of looking for what can we do to help now there's a lot of why didn't we do something different?"
--George H.W. Bush (9/5/05)

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"What I'm hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this...this is working very well for them."
--Barbara Bush (9/5/05)

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"I dropped a twenty in the bucket."
--Millionaire Jeb Bush, speaking from the broadcast booth on a collection for hurricane relief at the Miami-Florida State game. (9/5/05)

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"Bureaucracy is not going to stand in the way of getting the job done for the people."
--President Bush (9/6/05)

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"Americans don't sleep in tents."
--Unnamed FEMA official, responding to the head of the Hurricane Center of Louisiana State University who was trying to urge FEMA to set up tent cities in other states to handle the hundreds of thousands of Katrina survivors. The story was told by Tim Russert on `Imus in the Morning' (9/6/05)

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"Louisiana's Senator Landrieu announced on network television, "I might likely have to punch him, literally." And my question, since "him" is the President, and both punching and threatening to punch the President is a felony, has her qualifying words `might likely' saved her from arrest and prosecution?"
--Unknown reporter to White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan (9/6/05)

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"I understand there are 10,000 people dead. It's terrible. It's tragic. But in a democracy of 300 million people, over years and years and years, these things happen."
--GOP strategist Jack Burkman defending Bush (9/6/05)

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"We really don't have time to play the political game right now."
White House Counselor Dan Bartlett (9/6/05)

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Reporter: Just to get you on the record, where does the buck stop in this administration?
Scott McClellan: The President.
White House press briefing (9/6/05)

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To be continued...sadly.