Daily Briefing -- Katrina: A 'Besieged White House'
• RoveandBartlettdevised plan to shift blame to Louisiana and to ignore Democrats' attacks; manyBushadvisors spent weekend atNicole Devenish's wedding in Greece.Chertoff's talking point: "We will have time to go back and do an after-action report, but the time right now is to look at what the enormous tasks ahead are." [ NYT ]
•Officials point fingers over failures in Gulf Coast.Nagin: "We're still fighting over authority."Hillarycalls for independent commission to analyze response. [ NYT , WT ]
•"Besieged White House" forced to balance problems on the Gulf Coast, complexity of Supreme Court drama, and ongoing challenges in Iraq. [ WP , WT ]
•High death toll anticipated.Michael Leavitt: "I think it's evident it's in the thousands."Chertoff: "We need to prepare the country for what's coming." [ WP , NYT , LAT ]
• Bushto revisit Louisiana today.Doris Kearns Goodwin: "These are the kinds of moments when a president gives voice to the country. They're remembered forever, if it's done right." [ NYT ]
•Years of budget cuts and bureaucratic shuffling have left FEMA unprepared. Former official: "They've taken emergency management away from the emergency managers. These operations are being run by people who are amateurs at what they are doing." [ LAT ]
• Howard Kurtz: "For once, reporters were acting like concerned citizens, not passive observers. . . Maybe, just maybe, journalism needs to bring more passion to the table -- and not just when cable shows are obsessing on the latest missing white woman." [ WP ]