The Boston Globe - FEMA's Focus

Chertoff wants to eliminate the FEMA role in disaster prevention and have a separate office do its liaison work with state and local governments. This reorganization, planned before the hurricane struck, is supposed to focus FEMA on its core mission: responding to disasters. Elimination of powers diminishes agencies, however, not strengthens them.

The Boston Globe LTEs:

• Who Has Done More Damage?
  
  
• The Buck Stops in Washington
  
  
• What Did He Know and When Did He Know It?
  
  
• The Bush Administration Needs To Go

The New York Times - No Strangers to the Blues

The tragedy in New Orleans did not occur in a vacuum. There is no way, even in the face of a storm as violent as Katrina, that a great American city should have been reduced to little more than a sewage pit overnight.

The monumental failure of the federal government to respond immediately and effectively to the catastrophe that resulted from Hurricane Katrina was preceded by many years in which the people of New Orleans (especially its poorest residents) were shamefully neglected by all levels of government.

New York Times LTEs:

• Maybe It IS Time to Fix Blame

The Washington Post - Mr. Bush's Storm

PRESIDENT BUSH'S response to Hurricane Katrina has been, to put it kindly, faltering. He has fallen short both rhetorically and substantively. The rhetorical failure is less important but perhaps more surprising for a politician with his strong communications skills. One of the highlights of Mr. Bush's presidency, and one of the keys to his reelection, was his ability to rally a country stunned by the Sept. 11 attacks -- perhaps most vividly in his visit to the smoldering ruins of the World Trade Center. President Bill Clinton rose to an earlier challenge after the Oklahoma City bombing, using the bully pulpit of the presidency to reassure and console the nation.

Washington Post LTEs:

• A Gumbo of Blame for the New Orleans Debacle

The Chicago Tribune - When Governments Fail Citizens

The initial federal response, through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was a tangle of red tape. It wasn't until several days after the flooding that the cavalry arrived: 6,500 National Guard troops. Relief supplies followed, order was restored and an evacuation proceeded.

Once the flood survivors are stabilized, Americans will demand that officials at all levels of government sort out what went so horrendously wrong. The president and Congress have vowed to investigate. One logical tool: an independent, bipartisan panel, like the 9/11 Commission, to autopsy these failings and prescribe remedies for the future.

Chicago Tribune LTEs:

• Politics and Disaster
  
  
• Bush's Reputation
  
  
• Barbara Bush's Comments

The Dallas Morning News - Is America Prepared? Leadership Was Lacking at Every Level of Crisis

If the terror attacks of 9-11 redefined the politics of disaster planning, then the emergency response to Katrina's wrath does little to answer the question the nation posed four years ago:

Is America really prepared to respond to a catastrophic terrorist attack on our soil?

• Perhaps They'll Notice

The Los Angeles Times - It's Time for Action, Not Words

With "TURF WARS" consuming Louisiana and federal officials over who should have responded to what and when, the Times-Picayune of New Orleans on Wednesday gave the most clear-cut advice to the bureaucrats: Enough.

In an angry editorial, the Times-Picayune wrote that the feds, who accused local officials of hampering relief efforts by protecting their state's home "turf," are the ones engaging in an "awfully convenient dodge" of accountability. Further, establishing a federal commission to investigate the disaster response may help in the long run, the editorial said, but it "won't address what ought to be everyone's immediate priority: getting New Orleanians to safety and ... the reconstruction underway."

Los Angeles Times LTEs:

• Federal Response to Katrina is Under Fire
  
  
• Examining the Reaction to Hurricane Katrina

The Seattle Post Intelligencer - Gulf Coast is Apocalypse Now

There is a difference between politics and governance. The Bush administration is very, very good at politics, and the business of making itself look good. The administration is far less able at governance, the business of doing a good job. The distinction has been brought into sharp relief by the apocalyptic events in New Orleans, where failures in governance would not be spun away.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer LTEs:

• First Mother Can Keep Her Silver at Home

Have at it, folks - should we all be coordinating an LTE campaign with stronger language and rhetoric?