Allocating Blame for Katrina Response

As I've said before, there is plenty of blame to go around when criticizing the government's response to Katrina. Andrew Sullivan synthesizes what was happening on the Federal level. And it's not good.

According to Sen. David Vitter, a Republican ally of Bush's, the meeting came to a head when Mayor Nagin blew up during a fraught discussion of "who's in charge?" Nagin slammed his hand down on the table and told Bush, "We just need to cut through this and do what it takes to have a more-controlled command structure. If that means federalizing it, let's do it."

It took a city mayor to tell the president to do his job. But Blanco balked. And Bush dithered, while more lives were lost. When you get a senior Bush aide describing the White House bunker as "strangely surreal and almost detached," you know we have a problem.

Agreed. And as Andrew properly points out, what does this say about homeland security as it relates to terrorism and the war in Iraq?