Competence, Cronyism and Conservatism

The more you look the worse everything gets
Katrina has exposed the rotten state of government

by Andrew Sullivan
September 11, 2005

Here’s an interesting question. Who said the following: “For the last week, the federal government and its state and local counterparts have consistently been behind the curve. The American people overwhelmingly know that the current situation is totally unacceptable,” and “It is a mistake to get trapped into defending the systems and processes which clearly failed.” Hillary Clinton? John Kerry? Howard Dean? No: Newt Gingrich, in private memos to fellow Republicans leaked to The Washington Post.

For those in Washington, this is not that surprising. In private, Gingrich has been scathing about the Bush administration’s handling of the war in Iraq, the Republican Congress’ fiscal profligacy and sleaze.

But he does put his finger on what you might call the three Cs dogging this administration in the wake of Hurricane Katrina: competence, cronyism and conservatism.
What happened after Katrina hit — the complete failure of local, state and federal authorities to seize control of the situation — was not about right or left, Democrat or Republican. It was about simple competence.

Take the latest spin from the White House public relations operation, now in overdrive. The White House blames Kathleen Blanco, the governor of Louisiana, for not specifically requesting federal troops to impose law and order (as opposed to search and rescue), and so clearing away legal hurdles for the federal government to help.

An anonymous source — Andy Card? Karl Rove? — told The New York Times: “Can you imagine how it would have been perceived if a president of the United States of one party had pre-emptively taken from the female governor of another party the command and control of her forces, unless the security situation made it completely clear that she was unable to effectively execute her command authority and that lawlessness was the inevitable result?” Well, actually, at that point it was completely clear that the state authorities were overwhelmed and “lawlessness was the inevitable result”. Emergencies such as Katrina are precisely why the federal executive branch exists. It exists to take control and do things swiftly. Instead, the White House worried about gender politics and public relations while people drowned and corpses littered the streets of a city.

And Blanco’s defense? “I need everything you have got,” she said she told the president last Tuesday. Alas, she didn't specify which type of soldier and for which purpose: “Nobody told me that I had to request that. I thought that I had requested everything they had.” If this weren't a human catastrophe, it might be a comedy.

[NOTE: Blanco did, very early on, declared a state of emergency and asked for federal help. It was the federal government that dropped the ball.]

Suddenly, I understand the situation in Iraq a little better. I understand a little better why two years after the invasion, the road from the Baghdad airport to the Green Zone is still insecure. I understand why, when looting broke out immediately after Saddam was toppled, the US military simply watched.

I understand why barely a fraction of reconstruction funds have been spent. And judging from the completely clueless things the president and vice-president said last week, I also understand why I have become unable to trust anything they say about the reality on the ground in Iraq.

Last week, Dick Cheney called the response to Katrina “very impressive”. Yes, and the insurgency is in its “last throes”.

Then there’s cronyism. We now all know that Michael Brown, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), had little or no experience of managing major emergencies. Neither had his deputy. Nor his predecessor, when appointed. But they were all Bush campaign operatives and cronies. The Senate approved his appointment after a 42-minute hearing.

What does it tell you — that the last two FEMA heads were college room-mates? And that the previous head was already down on the Gulf coast last week, advising “private clients” on helping with the recovery? You don't think any of the $100 billion in aid might end up in the hands of a few well-connected businessmen, do you? Meanwhile, even conservative commentators had to concede that Brown was in way over his head. He'd even padded his CV. In normal times, this kind of cronyism is not exactly shocking. It happens all the time — in administrations Democrat and Republican. Bill Clinton was a master at it. But after 9/11, to place a complete hack in charge of response to a national emergency is criminal negligence.

Last: conservatism. Some have argued this past week that the underlying problem is that America doesn't have enough government spending or a big enough government. Given the explosion of spending under Bush — the biggest increase since Lyndon Johnson — this makes no sense at all. The US has spent billions on homeland security — and what we now know is that if Al-Qaeda had blown up a couple of levees in New Orleans, they could have killed far more people than they did on 9/11.

The issue is not how big government is, but how effective it is. Conservatism has never meant abandoning the basic task of government: the common defense and law and order. Even classical liberals, like yours truly, who like their government extremely lean, have no problem with spending what it takes to secure basic infrastructure and a police and military to protect private property. That basic infrastructure didn't exist last week.

The blame goes back for years, several administrations, and multiple mayors of New Orleans and governors of Louisiana. The state has actually been the biggest recipient of federal funds for this kind of infrastructure under Bush, with California a distant second.

But corruption, elaborate layers of authority and simple failure to prepare for the worst scenario (they had organized drills for hurricanes without a breach of the levees) made Katrina’s devastation possible.

They were spending hundreds of millions on a new lock for one of New Orleans’ breached canals, to make way for more barge traffic. But barge traffic declined, according to The Washington Post. If that money had been spent raising the levee, some lives might have been saved.
What Bush has done to conservatism is align it with big government moralizing, big government spending and big government inefficiency. He hasn't vetoed a single spending bill. Pork-barrel spending — on projects often unneeded — has taken precedence over real needs in a Republican-run Congress with a Republican president.

Republicans and Democrats in gerrymandered districts have siphoned public money for pet projects to reward donors and constituents, rather than prioritizing for the public good. There’s plenty of blame to go round. Government in America is bloated and broken at the same time. A true conservative would be cutting and prioritizing it.

George W Bush isn't that person. If that isn't clear by now, you have blinkers on. And, ultimately, he’s the one responsible. He campaigned fundamentally on his ability to run the country in wartime, on emergency management, on protecting Americans from physical harm. That was his promise. It was swept away as the waters flooded New Orleans. And Al-Qaeda was watching every minute of it.