[Mb-civic] Bush Takes Responsibility For Failures Of Response - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Bush Takes Responsibility For Failures Of Response

By Jim VandeHei and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, September 14, 2005; Page A01

President Bush yesterday said he takes personal responsibility for the 
federal government's stumbling response to Hurricane Katrina, as his 
White House worked on several fronts to move beyond the improvisation of 
the first days of the crisis and set a long-term course on a problem 
that aides now believe will shadow the balance of Bush's second term.

"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all 
levels of government," Bush said at a White House news conference with 
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. "And to the extent that the federal 
government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility. I want 
to know what went right and what went wrong."
The first major public event in the White House effort to take control 
of the post-Katrina political and policy agenda will occur tomorrow 
night in a prime-time speech to the nation. The president will deliver 
it from the flood region on his fourth trip there since the hurricane 
struck.

Bush already has dispatched his top strategist, Deputy Chief of Staff 
Karl Rove, and other aides to assemble ideas from agencies, conservative 
think tanks, GOP lawmakers and state officials to guide the rebuilding 
of New Orleans and relocation of flood victims. The idea, aides said, is 
twofold: provide a quick federal response that comports with Bush's 
governing philosophy, and prevent Katrina from swamping his second-term 
ambitions on Social Security, taxes and Middle East democracy-building.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/13/AR2005091300588.html?nav=hcmodule
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