McCain sharply critical of Bush response to Katrina
By Steve Holland
NEW ORLEANS, April 24 (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain was sharply critical on Thursday of what he called the Bush administration's disgraceful handling of Hurricane Katrina and vowed, "Never again."
McCain, putting some distance between himself and President George W. Bush, said if he had been president during the 2005 catastrophe he would have immediately visited New Orleans during the initial shock aftermath of the killer storm.
While he said he was not being critical of Bush for not visiting New Orleans, "I'm just saying I would've landed my airplane at the nearest Air Force base and come over personally."
Two days after the hurricane made landfall in August 2005, when immediate recovery efforts were chaotic, Bush surveyed the damage during a fly-over in Air Force One while returning from a trip to the West Coast.
On Thursday, McCain went on a tour of New Orleans' lower Ninth Ward, a neighborhood still struggling to recover from Katrina 2 1/2 years after the storm struck.
"I want to assure the people of the Ninth Ward, the people of New Orleans, the people of this country: Never again, never again will a disaster of this nature be handled in the terrible and disgraceful way it was handled. Never again," McCain told reporters after his tour.
Biding his time while Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton fight over who will face him in the November election, McCain is trying this week to appeal to moderate voters by visiting places left behind by U.S. economic growth.
The Arizona senator has made cutting government spending a top reason why he should be elected in November.
Nevertheless, he said he supported billions of dollars of spending to strengthen New Orleans' levee system to sustain the impact of Category 5 storm and to rebuild islands and wetlands that serve as barriers around the Gulf of Mexico city.
The Democratic National Committee accused McCain of voting against emergency funding for the area.
"When John McCain is campaigning in New Orleans, will he explain to Gulf Coast voters why he voted against emergency funding to the area and against giving victims of Katrina access to Medicaid and unemployment benefits?" the DNC asked in an e-mail to reporters.
McCain, asked on his bus about his votes, said any such votes were against legislation that included "wasteful, pork-barrel spending" that included projects that did not go through normal congressional review.
He has vowed to veto any such "earmark" projects if elected in order to force the U.S. Congress to spend money on more important projects like New Orleans.
McCain said the United States should be prepared for storms of such magnitude as a Category 5 hurricane because he believes global warming is creating conditions that are leading to more extreme weather conditions.
"I believe there's going to be more radical weather patterns and I think we're going to see with the warming of the globe, a rise in sea levels, and I think that's going to happen in the Gulf," he said.
After his Ninth Ward tour, McCain said the Katrina recovery is still hampered by government red tape.
With a large entourage that included his wife, Cindy, Louisiana Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal and two National Guard truckloads of news media, McCain walked past houses still uninhabited, some with piles of rubble out front.
At one point the McCains saw Federal Emergency Management trailers that had served as temporary shelters. McCain was told it takes as long as a month for the trailers to be removed once families move back into their homes.
"It took forever to get them here, and then they take forever to get 'em out," Jindal told McCain. McCain shook his head incredulously several times and said "My goodness" in response.
(Editing by David Wiessler)
(To read more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)
NEW ORLEANS, April 24 (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain was sharply critical on Thursday of what he called the Bush administration's disgraceful handling of Hurricane Katrina and vowed, "Never again."
McCain, putting some distance between himself and President George W. Bush, said if he had been president during the 2005 catastrophe he would have immediately visited New Orleans during the initial shock aftermath of the killer storm.
While he said he was not being critical of Bush for not visiting New Orleans, "I'm just saying I would've landed my airplane at the nearest Air Force base and come over personally."
Two days after the hurricane made landfall in August 2005, when immediate recovery efforts were chaotic, Bush surveyed the damage during a fly-over in Air Force One while returning from a trip to the West Coast.
On Thursday, McCain went on a tour of New Orleans' lower Ninth Ward, a neighborhood still struggling to recover from Katrina 2 1/2 years after the storm struck.
"I want to assure the people of the Ninth Ward, the people of New Orleans, the people of this country: Never again, never again will a disaster of this nature be handled in the terrible and disgraceful way it was handled. Never again," McCain told reporters after his tour.
Biding his time while Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton fight over who will face him in the November election, McCain is trying this week to appeal to moderate voters by visiting places left behind by U.S. economic growth.
The Arizona senator has made cutting government spending a top reason why he should be elected in November.
Nevertheless, he said he supported billions of dollars of spending to strengthen New Orleans' levee system to sustain the impact of Category 5 storm and to rebuild islands and wetlands that serve as barriers around the Gulf of Mexico city.
The Democratic National Committee accused McCain of voting against emergency funding for the area.
"When John McCain is campaigning in New Orleans, will he explain to Gulf Coast voters why he voted against emergency funding to the area and against giving victims of Katrina access to Medicaid and unemployment benefits?" the DNC asked in an e-mail to reporters.
McCain, asked on his bus about his votes, said any such votes were against legislation that included "wasteful, pork-barrel spending" that included projects that did not go through normal congressional review.
He has vowed to veto any such "earmark" projects if elected in order to force the U.S. Congress to spend money on more important projects like New Orleans.
McCain said the United States should be prepared for storms of such magnitude as a Category 5 hurricane because he believes global warming is creating conditions that are leading to more extreme weather conditions.
"I believe there's going to be more radical weather patterns and I think we're going to see with the warming of the globe, a rise in sea levels, and I think that's going to happen in the Gulf," he said.
After his Ninth Ward tour, McCain said the Katrina recovery is still hampered by government red tape.
With a large entourage that included his wife, Cindy, Louisiana Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal and two National Guard truckloads of news media, McCain walked past houses still uninhabited, some with piles of rubble out front.
At one point the McCains saw Federal Emergency Management trailers that had served as temporary shelters. McCain was told it takes as long as a month for the trailers to be removed once families move back into their homes.
"It took forever to get them here, and then they take forever to get 'em out," Jindal told McCain. McCain shook his head incredulously several times and said "My goodness" in response.
(Editing by David Wiessler)
(To read more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)
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