Nancy Pelosi’s assessment of President Bush in the days following Hurricane Katrina and hers of President Obama following the revelation of the AIG bonus debacle and his handling of the financial crisis overall offer an unobstructed view of full blown party politics.
In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, governments at all levels were scrambling to react to the most devastating, widespread and costly natural disaster in the nation’s history. Over 1800 people died dwarfing the totals of all recent storms of the last several decades combined. There was nearly a complete break down in state and local governmental functions in the New Orleans metropolitan area causing the federal government to step into the first responders role in an unprecedented way, which it did heroically given the circumstances. The United States Coast Guard conducted the largest search and rescue operation in its century long history rescuing over 30,000 people throughout the region, while the United States Army rolled into New Orleans two and a half days after the breach of the city’s levees and restored order to a city that had fallen into anarchy.
About a week after the storm hit, while President Bush was overseeing the largest federal response to a natural disaster in our nation's history (eventually numbering over 70,000 people), Pelosi thought it a good time to attack him and the federal efforts. She recounted a conversation that she said she had with the President, during which she told him in light of everything that had gone wrong responding to Katrina, that he should fire FEMA Director Michael Brown. According to Pelosi, Bush responded, “What didn’t go right?” She then proclaimed to reporters that President Bush was “Oblivious, in denial, dangerous.” (quote midway through linked article).
Give me a break. If President Bush in fact responded as she said he did, the subtext almost certainly was, “I don’t really need you telling me how to do my job and whom I should hire and fire.” The President himself knew and stated publicly during the first days of the crisis that there were problems with the response at all levels government. He said, “A lot of people are working hard to help those who have been affected, and I want to thank the people for their efforts. The results are not acceptable. I'm headed down there right now. I'm looking forward to talking to the people on the ground.” Certainly Michael Brown had some bad moments in front of the camera, particularly in being un-informed about the plight of those at the New Orleans Convention Center. Query why the city's mayor, Ray Nagin, directed people to go there (and to the Superdome) without even a day’s supply of water on-hand or why Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco could not direct the Louisiana National Guard to go to those locations sooner and bring people water and other needed supplies, as they awaited evacuation. State and local governments traditionally have met these immediate needs with the federal government in the supporting role. Bush traveled to New Orleans in the days immediately following the storm and met with Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco and several other state, local and federal authorities. By the time Pelosi said they spoke, order had been restored to streets of the city, the U.S. Army had brought supplies into the city, and evacuations were well under way. Doesn’t sound like President Bush who was “Oblivious, in denial and dangerous.”
Everyone knew Pelosi's comments about Bush and the federal response were political and directed to the American people in order to score as many points as possible from the disaster. A true statesman/woman, when tempted to attack one's political opponent in the first days of a major catastrophe, should have said something like, "This is an enormous challenge. Obviously there have been problems with the government's response at all levels. They'll be plenty of time to determine who's responsible and what went wrong in the weeks ahead, but for now let's just do all we can help those affected by the storm." No such words or suggestion of any failures at the state and local levels were forthcoming, because Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco were Democrats. The Democratic Party Pelosi led was in the minority, and she intended to use emotionally charged moment following the storm to help bring the President's popularity ratings down, and the Republican Party's with him. The plan worked. Katrina was a PR disaster for the President and his ratings took a downturn, from which he never recovered.
Flash forward to 2009. The Democrats did take control of Congress in 2006. The nation is now experiencing the greatest financial upheaval since the Great Depression and now it’s President Obama who was oblivious to something he should have known about and it's his Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geither, whose competence is in question. New York Times Op-Ed columnist Frank Rich called the whole debacle Obama's “Katrina Moment.” It started with Obama telling Congress it had to rush the $800 billion Stimulus Bill to his desk by President's Day, giving members of Congress less than a day to read the 1100 page bill with its hundreds of provisions (with references to numerous other laws). He then took five days to sign it himself. Tucked in that bill was an executive compensation provision for those receiving government bail out funds, which exempted all pay received prior to February 11th. Obama said he didn't know anything about it and was "Outraged." Secretary Geithner, in turn, couldn't seem to keep his story straight. He said last week that he first learned of the $150 million plus in AIG bonuses on March 10 when some aides in the Treasury Department informed him; however, he was questioned on this very matter by on March 3 during a Congressional hearing. Therefore, he at least had knowledge of them then: he told the Congressman the prospect of such bonuses was troubling and he would look into the matter. He didn't have to look far, because his own Department requested that language exempting bonuses paid before February 11 be included in the Stimulus Bill. Further, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, with Geitner as its President, helped craft the original terms of the government bailout last fall, which included provision for bonuses. Executive compensation was obviously going to be a major issue when taxpayer money was being used to keep these companies afloat. He is either being deceitful or is incompetent. Further if Obama were truly exercising good leadership, he would not have been rushing Congress, so such a provision could be slipped in with few knowing about it.
Where’s the outrage now from Speaker Pelosi? Why isn’t she telling President Obama that he should fire Geither, and if she has, announcing it to the public? Or calling President Obama, “Oblivious, in denial, dangerous.” The federal government has spent approximately $170 billion bailing out AIG alone and approaching $2 trillion dealing with the mortgage meltdown and financial crisis. By contrast, Katrina recovery efforts have cost $175 billion to date. Additionally, Obama has proposed a $3.6 trillion federal budget with massive increases in spending not only in the short term to deal with the crisis, but over the next ten years, which the Congressional Budget Office forecasts will add a $1 trillion to the national debt per year. Obama's argument is that unless we adopt a government financed health program costing 100's of billions and increase government aid for college tuition and conduct research for alternative energy to the tune of 10's of billions more, the economy will not recover. Funny, it was functioning quite well a year or two ago, without these massive new government programs. Such plans are shaking the confidence of the financial sector and faith in the dollar. Katrina only affected a region of the country directly; while the financial crisis is affecting the world.
Rather than cutting criticism, Pelosi's observation regarding Obama is, “I believe the President is on the right path and did an excellent job in his leadership when we passed the [$800 billion] recovery act here”, with its provision protecting executive bonuses. As for the executive bonuses she said, “It’s not right” and that the executives should give the money back or the government should use whatever means required to get it. Pelosi directs all blame to the companies rather than to the President, the Treasury and Congress (well that would include herself of course) for allowing them.
The difference between Speaker Pelosi's reaction to President Bush's leadership during Katrina and Obama's during this financial crisis is of course entirely political. The difference in reality is while President Bush was in no way "Oblivious, in denial or dangerous" when Pelosi made her pronouncement, President Obama was oblivious, by his own admission, regarding executive bonuses; and is in denial about the effects of accumulating massive government debt to the future of our republic; and therefore may well be dangerous.
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Randy DeSoto is the author of the book We Hold These Truths, which addresses how leaders have appealed to the beliefs in God's Providence and inalienable rights, throughout our nation's history.