From: "Media Matters for America"
> <action@mediamatters.org>
> Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2006 17:08:09 -0400
> Subject: Wash. Post article on Katrina's political
> effect quoted only
> Republicans, obscured Democratic criticism of
> Bush's recovery efforts
> To: alexx33@sbcglobal.net
>
> <em>Wash. Post</em> article on Katrina's political
> effect quoted only
> Republicans, obscured Democratic criticism of Bush's
> recovery efforts
> http://mediamatters.org/items/200608280006
>
> In an August 26 Washington Post article exploring
> the political effects
> of Hurricane Katrina on the Bush administration,
> staff writers Jonathan
> Weisman and Michael Abramowitz uncritically reported
> two dubious
> Republican assertions: that public opinion of Bush's
> handling of the
> crisis has rebounded over the past year and that he
> now has a "strong
> story to tell" about his recovery efforts along the
> Gulf Coast. But
> Weisman and Abramowitz ignored recent polling
> showing no improvement in
> Bush's approval rating on Katrina since the weeks
> after the storm.
> Further, they failed to quote a single Democrat in
> the article, despite
> a recently released report by Democratic
> congressional leaders detailing
> what they described as the consequences for Gulf
> coast residents of "a
> failed Republican response marked by unfulfilled
> promises, cronyism,
> waste, fraud, and abuse."
> In the article -- "Katrina's Damage Lingers For Bush
> [ /rd?http://
>
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/25/
> AR2006082501481.html ]" -- Weisman and Abramowitz
> reported that,
> "according to pollsters, pundits and Republican
> politicians ... the
> winds of Katrina may have been the force that
> finally wrenched the Bush
> presidency off its moorings." They quoted numerous
> Republicans
> criticizing the White House's handling of the crisis
> and commenting on
> the political challenges that resulted from it: Rep.
> Patrick T. McHenry
> (R-NC) said that Katrina "undermined" Bush's
> reputation as an able
> leader; Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) described the
> crisis as "a break in
> the levee of political goodwill and the Teflon
> coating that the
> administration had been enjoying up to then"; Rep.
> Jim McCrery (R-LA)
> complained about the images of Bush "joshing amid
> the devastation";
> White House counselor Dan Bartlett referred to the
> storm as a "setback";
> and Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL) was even quoted
> criticizing Bush for failing
> to integrate "free-market principles" into the
> reconstruction process.
> But the article also included assertions by most of
> these Republican
> figures that Bush has regained substantial ground in
> the year since
> Katrina made landfall. Weisman and Abramowitz
> reported McCrery's
> assessment that "[i]n Louisiana and other Gulf Coast
> states, Bush's
> efforts have made a difference, both in rebuilding
> the region and in
> restoring his credibility." They quoted McHenry
> saying, "He has
> rebounded in one year's time from what he lost in
> one week's time,"
> although the process of rebounding "is not
> complete." And though
> Bartlett called the Katrina response a "setback at
> the time," he added
> that "it was recoverable and has been."
> Weisman and Abramowitz proceeded to quote Andrew
> Kohut, director of the
> Pew Research Center for the People & the Press,
> arguing that the Katrina
> response "had a big impact on how people look at"
> Bush. They also quoted
> Gallup Poll editor in chief Frank Newport doubting
> the existence of any
> "Katrina effect" on Bush's overall approval rating.
> But while Weisman
> and Abramowitz did cite an ABC News/Washington Post
> poll from March
> finding that "63 percent of Americans disapproved of
> Bush's handling of
> Katrina," they ignored a fact that specifically
> rebuts Republican claims
> of a rebound: the percentage of Americans who
> disapprove of Bush's
> handling of Katrina has not declined over the past
> year, according to
> two recent polls:
> * An August 17-21 CBS/New York Times poll found
> that 51 percent [ /
>
>
rd?http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/poll082506.pdf#page=6
> ] of
> respondents disapproved of the way Bush "is
> responding to the
> needs of people affected by Hurricane
> Katrina," compared to 48
> percent [
> /rd?http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/
> poll082506.pdf#page=5 ] disapproval in a poll
> conducted September
> 9-13, 2005.
> * An August 18-20 USA Today/Gallup poll [
> /rd?http://
>
>
www.usatoday.com/news/polls/tables/live/2006-08-21-poll.htm
> ]
> found that 56 percent of respondents
> disapproved of the way Bush
> "is handling the problems caused by Hurricane
> Katrina," compared
> to 54 percent disapproval in a poll conducted
> September 8-11,
> 2005.
> In keeping with the Republican narrative that Bush's
> dedication to the
> reconstruction process this year has helped him
> rebound, Weisman and
> Abramowitz further reported the White House's claim
> that Bush "has
> learned from the Katrina mistakes" and now "has a
> strong story to tell"
> about the government's recovery efforts in the
> region:
> The president will appear Monday and Tuesday on
> the Gulf Coast
> to mark the first anniversary of the hurricane.
> To the White
> House, the president has a strong story to
> tell: approval of
> more than $110 billion in resources for the
> Gulf region, 12
> previous visits to the region by Bush and 82 by
> members of his
> Cabinet, the restoration of more than 220 miles
> of New
> Orleans's flood walls and levees, the
> floodproofing of pumping
> stations, and the addition of floodgates to
> protect against
> storm surges.
> Bush aides said the president will accept
> responsibility for
> the botched federal response while stressing
> that the
> government has learned from the Katrina
> mistakes and promising
> to see through the reconstruction of the Gulf
> Coast.
> Weisman and Abramowitz went on to note that, "in the
> early days,"
> Democrats criticized the failures of both the
> Federal Emergency
> Management Agency (FEMA) and the Bush administration
> at large, leading
> the administration to "placate those critics with a
> shower of financial
> support." Yet, they depicted the criticism of Bush's
> subsequent
> reconstruction efforts as coming solely from the
> right:
> It was not only the slow, ineffectual response
> to the initial
> devastation that was responsible for the
> decline, critics and
> supporters say, but also the policy initiatives
> that came
> later. Urban Democrats and minorities, already
> prone to
> dislike Bush, focused on FEMA's botched relief
> efforts in the
> early days. But as the White House moved to
> placate those
> critics with a shower of financial support, the
> administration
> began alienating many Republicans, who wanted
> to use the
> disaster to turn the Gulf Coast into a showcase
> for
> conservative ideas.
> As the weblog AMERICABlog.com noted [ /rd?http://
>
americablog.blogspot.com/2006/08/wash-post-examines-bush-and-
> katrina.html ], Weisman and Abramowitz failed to
> quote a single Democrat
> in the article. In doing so, they left the false
> impression that, while
> Republicans criticized Bush during the rebuilding
> process for not
> implementing more "conservative ideas," the Bush
> administration was
> making progress in "placat[ing]" Democrats.
> To the contrary, Democrats have assailed the
> reconstruction efforts as
> anything but "strong." On August 23, Senate
> Democratic Leader Harry Reid
> (NV) and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (CA)
> released a report
> titled "Broken Promises: The Republican Response to
> Katrina [ /rd?http:/
> /democrats.senate.gov/pdfs/KatrinaReport2006.pdf ]."
> The 18-page
> document offers a scathing review of the Bush
> administration's
> performance in the year since Katrina hit the Gulf
> Coast:
> In the aftermath of the disaster, President
> Bush and
> congressional Republicans made many promises to
> the desperate
> residents of the region, but most have been
> broken. Largely as
> a result, much of the Gulf Coast remains
> devastated, and
> residents continue to suffer from inadequate
> housing, health
> care and other basic services, and an
> infrastructure that
> cannot support badly needed economic
> development. The
> Administration has also failed to apply the
> lessons we've
> learned to their future disaster planning,
> leaving the country
> unprepared for another major disaster. Further
> compounding
> matters, the Federal government's response has
> been fraught
> with breathtaking levels of waste, fraud, and
> abuse, the likes
> of which are unprecedented in our nation's
> history.
> Following are some of the report's findings [
> /rd?http://
> democrats.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=261975&
> ]:
> * Thousands of families are still waiting for
> FEMA trailers.
> * An estimated 11 percent of the $19 billion
> that has been spent by
> FEMA -- or $2 billion -- has been waste,
> fraud, and abuse.
> * Eighty percent of Gulf Coast businesses with
> approved SBA [Small
> Business Administration] disaster loans are
> still waiting to get
> their loans.
> * The Republican Congress didn't enact needed
> housing money for
> homeowners in Louisiana until June, 10 months
> after Katrina -- and
> the money has still failed to reach these
> homeowners.
> * Only three of the 10 acute-care hospitals in
> New Orleans have re-
> opened; the only public hospital, Charity, has
> still not re-
> opened.
> * Only 56 of 128 public schools in New Orleans
> are enrolling
> students this fall.
>
>
> Contact:
> The Washington Post
> <a
>
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/interact/longterm/stfbio/wpemail.htm"><i>The
> Washington Post</i></a>
> The Washington Post
> 1150 15th St. NW
> Washington, DC 20071
>
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