Coast Guard...Witt on FEMA....

An excerpt from this morning's LA Times...front page:

Behind the scenes there were tensions between Blanco and the administration over the White House's attempt last week to force her to cede the constitutional authority she wields over the Louisiana National Guard.A senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed Monday that top White House officials had pressed her to allow federal officials to unify National Guard and active-duty troops under one chain of command. The official said that "we wanted to unify the command and control for security" under Army Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honore, who is heading National Guard troops in New Orleans.

But Blanco has resisted, fearing the White House is attempting to paint her as the weak link in last week's slow-moving government disaster operations. On Monday, Blanco's aides learned only at the last minute that Bush was touring the state capital in Baton Rouge and complained that she was being punished for holding tight to her constitutional authority over state-based National Guard units.

When the two sat together at the Emergency Operations Center, Bush smiled benignly while Blanco stared ahead solemnly. At one point, Bush leaned over to give her a peck on the cheek, but her stern gaze did not waver.

Later, Blanco minimized rumors of sniping and said she supported the work of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has drawn sharp criticism in recent days. "This debate was simply about an organizational structure," she said. "We needed the versatility to use the National Guard members as they needed them."

After attending a meeting with Bush, Blanco and other federal and state officials, James Lee Witt, the former Clinton administration FEMA director, said that "in two days, you'll see a different program down here."

But Witt, who was hired as an advisor last week by Blanco to shore up her emergency planning and to blunt federal efforts to seize authority over military relief operations, also said that the Bush administration had "minimized FEMA" by folding it into the Department of Homeland Security."You can't report up through three different chains of people and make things go fast," Witt said. "FEMA needs to be put back as an independent agency with the people and resources to do its job well."

Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff and FEMA head Michael D. Brown have been under fire for moving aid in too slowly and for not coordinating with local officials. They continued to defend their performance.

During one news conference Monday, a perturbed Brown resorted to listing his previous experience dealing with public emergencies."Yeah, I've been through a few disasters in my life," he said.

During a Monday meeting to unveil a fundraising foundation to aid hurricane victims, former Presidents Clinton and George H.W. Bush agreed that sniping between disaster officials should cease while relief operations were still underway. But Clinton said a national commission should investigate mistakes made in the first days after the hurricane, which hit Aug. 29. And he also questioned FEMA's current structure."It has something to do with how they reorganized after I left," Clinton said.

Shoring up his organization, Chertoff named a new federal official to help oversee rescue and recovery operations in New Orleans. Vice Adm. Thad W. Allen, the Coast Guard's chief of staff, will be deputy federal officer under Brown. The Coast Guard has been widely praised for making more than 15,000 rescues of people trapped by the hurricane.

Allen's job will be to set up a new headquarters in New Orleans and work with Honore, who commands Joint Task Force Katrina, the military group in New Orleans.

Troops at the heart of relief operations in New Orleans and Mississippi continued to grow Monday. Major Gen. Bennett Landreneau of the Louisiana National Guard said the total number of forces in the city would climb to 10,000.

Honore, the commanding general of the First Army, seemed to be everywhere during the day. He directed troops, met with Bush and Blanco, and charmed and blustered at television news anchors who began to mimic his gruff phrasing — repeating his "boots on the ground" to refer to growing troop strength and ending questions with his terse, "Over!"

The general waved off the political firestorm over the Bush administration's halting response, chalking the chaos following Katrina's assault to the vagaries of nature."The storm did this. It wasn't anything the government did," Honore said. "The storm had the damn vote. You can't vote that damn water out of the city of New Orleans. Now let's take care of the evacuees! Let's get it on!"

"Over!"
Wrap....