Katrina: The "federalist pause"

That fatal gap between Katrina's landfall and the arrival of federal assistance? Conservatives defended it—on principle.

In her September 1, 2005 Financial Times [1] column Amity Shlaes simultaneously implored the nation to forswear partisanship, and gushed worshipfully about Bush's manful preparation and immediate response to the disaster.

Well, conservatives throw a lot of bovine fundament to the wall. This particular chunk didn't stick. So—on September 11!—she tried again. Of course [2] the federal government's response was slow, she reassured her readers. George Washington wouldn't have had it any other way.

The critics are right on one point. There was hesitation. That hesitation at times represented incompetence. But it was also something else: what we might call the Federalist Pause.

The Federalist Pause is that little intake of breath, that clearing of the political throat that American leaders instinctively demonstrate before plunging forward. Mr Bush provided a classic demonstration of the pause last week when he considered invoking a little-known law, the Insurrection Act, to take over Louisiana – and chose not to, out of deference to the authority of Kathleen Blanco, the governor.

You disagree? What, do you hate George Washington? You're silently counting the rotting corpses that were already floating down streets during that delightful pause that refreshes? You cad. President Bush, that gentleman, was but "deferring" to Governor Blanco. But what: are you one of those pinkos angrily reflecting, "What happened to the Bush regime's vaunted 'unitary executive' theory, which doted upon 'the unity in purpose and energy in action that characterize the presidency' [3] when it came to authorizing torture"?

Perish such thoughts, you anti-American goon. Writes Shlaes:

to argue that Mr Bush should have jumped into New Orleans like a crisis dictator is to superimpose a European sensibility on an American crisis. Mr Bush is commander-in-chief when it comes to war but, when it comes to disasters, he is still only a chief executive in a system of checks and balances...

As for the value of increased federal bureaucracy, a bureaucracy with a mandate larger than Herbert Hoover ever dreamed of - the Department of Homeland Security - is getting poor marks for its Katrina rescue. New Orleans is a tragedy, but a larger tragedy still would be to sacrifice federalism in its name.

Here's the problem: her theory that FEMA must await word from the governor before descending upon a disaster scene is bullshit. Check out this report [4] prepared in 2002 by the Department of Transportation praising the coordinated governmental response to the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, "one of the largest and most costly federal disasters with initial cost estimates of total damages at $25 billion":

Time______Elapsed Time______Event/Actions Taken

4:30 a.m.:_____0 minutes_____An earthquake of a magnitude of 6.8 occurred in the Los Angeles area, centered in Northridge. Damage spread over 2100 squaremiles and through three different counties.
4:31 a.m.:_____[1 min.]_____5.9 aftershock.
4:35 a.m.:_____[5 min.]_____Los Angeles City and County Emergency Operations Centers are activated.
4:45 a.m.:_____[15 min.]_____FEMA Response began.
5:45 a.m.:_____[1 hr. 15 min.]_____Los Angeles Mayor Riordan declared a state of emergency.
6:00 a.m.:_____[1 hr. 30 min.]_____FEMA Headquarters Emergency Support Team was activated.
6:45 a.m.:_____[1 hr. 45 min.]_____As many as 50 structural fires were reported, in addition to numerous ruptures in water and natural gas mains. Power outages reported
9:05 a.m.:_____[4 hr. 35 min.]_____California Governor Pete Wilson declared a State of Emergency....

What ho! Apparently the Bush Department of Transportation, in 2002, found nothing to object to when FEMA hit the scene within fifteen minutes of the quake, four hours and twenty minutes before the governor's state of emeregency.

But by 2005 and Katrina, suddenly conservatives are finding that the very American republic requires systematic Heck-of-a-Job-Browny-ism if it is to survive.

How con-veeeeen-ient.