Cafferty Goes Off on the Administration

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Thu, 1 Sep 2005 16:59:07 -0700 (PDT)

Cafferty Goes Off on the Administration

 

 

Cafferty Goes Off on the Administration

 

 

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http://movies.crooksandliars.com/The-Situation-Room-Cafferty-on%20Katrina.wmv

 

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http://movies.crooksandliars.com/The-Situation-Room-Cafferty-on%20Katrina.mov

 

 

Cafferty transcript, CNN, 9/1/05:

 

" The thing that's most glaring in all this is that the conditions

continue to deteriorate for the people who are victims in this, and

the efforts to do something about it don't seem to be anywhere in

sight. I want to read you something, Wolf. This is a quote from an

editorial:

 

`A better leader would have flown straight to the disaster zone and

announced the immediate mobilization of every available resource. The

cool, confident intuitive leadership Bush exhibited in his first term,

particularly in the months following 9/11, has vanished.'

 

Now that's not from some liberal rag; that is an editorial from one of

the most conservative newspapers in the country, New Hampshire's Union

Leader. the New York Times, not unexpectedly, kind of chimed in. They

said the president showed up a day later than he was needed and they

excoriate him for appearing `casual to the point of carelessness.'

Harsh words coming from FEMA's former disaster response chief, Eric

Tolber [sp?]: `The government was not ready and shifted its attention

from natural disaster to fighting the war on terror.'

 

The questions we ask on The Situation Room every afternoon, Wolf, are

posted on the website 2 to 3 hours before we go on the air, and people

who read the website often begin to respond to the questions before the

show actually starts. The question this hour is: How would you rate the

response of the federal government to Hurricane Katrina?

 

I've got to tell you something, we got 500-600 letters before the show

even went on the air. No one -- no one -- says the federal government

is doing a good job in handling one of the most atrocious and

embarrassing and far-reaching and calamitous things that has come along

in this country in my lifetime. I'm 62, I remember the riots in Watts,

I remember the earthquake in San Francisco. I remember a lot of things.

I have never, ever, seen anything as badly bungled and poorly handled

as this situation in New Orleans.

 

Where the hell is the water for these people? Why can't sandwiches be

dropped to those people who are in that Superdome down there? I mean,

what is going -- this is Thursday. This storm happened five days ago.

It's a disgrace, and don't think the world isn't watching. This is the

government the taxpayers are paying for, and it's fallen right flat on

its face, as far as I can see, in the way it's handled this thing. "

 

http://www.crooksandliars.com/stories/2005/09/01/cafferty