Katrina Coverage

The WaPo article "New Orleans Mayor Faces Tough Questions" has a few questions for Nagin, but it doesn't appear to have asked him or his associates to answer them. Perhaps they're just trying to give him a heads up. The WaPo does, however, show that they're "down":

Until Nagin spoke out, Yancy Brown, a native of the Big Easy, had little respect for the mayor, whom he considered too corporate and too disconnected from the black community. "He wasn't acting like a brother," said Brown, 60, a former member of the Black Panther organization. But after Nagin defiantly told the feds — and indirectly President Bush — to get off their "asses" and do some work, Brown became a fan.

Here are some of the questions the WaPo mentions, but doesn't say whether they asked:

Should there have been a better plan to evacuate those without cars? Was his police force up to the task? Why weren't there supplies for the legions of people directed to the Superdome? Why were all those city buses left in low-lying areas? Why did so many of his officers leave their posts as the city descended into a chaos that left many residents afraid that either thugs or the elements would kill them?

Further:

His officials said they did everything they could. Joseph R. Matthews, the city's director of emergency operations, said the city went on alert the afternoon of Friday, Aug. 26, even though a full evacuation was not ordered until Sunday. It became clear then that New Orleans would not be spared at least some of Katrina's wrath when the storm came ashore on Monday. The Superdome was opened as a shelter of last resort, though it was quickly overwhelmed and those who sought refuge there did not have food and water.

"Nothing prepared us for this," he said. "It was just too much."

And, as far as being an opponent of the Bush apparatus is concerned:

…But [Robert Hogan, an associate professor of political science at Louisiana State University] said it would be unwise for [Aaron Broussard, St. Bernard Parish officials, and "especially Nagin"] to keep the fight going.

"The Bush administration has the upper hand because they have the apparatus in place to come up with fingers to point," he said. "They have surrogates. They have a huge network that can help them through talk radio and national radio. They have talking points. State and local governments in Louisiana aren't in the propaganda mode. They don't have the ability to fight back. They are in the rescue and rebuilding mode."

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