McCain sharply critical of Bush response to Katrina

By Steve Holland

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain sharply criticized on Thursday 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.

"I'm just saying I would've landed my airplane at the nearest Air Force base and come over personally," he said.

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," McCain said.

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.

McCain repudiated comments from a Texas television preacher, John Hagee, who has said God punished New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina for planning a gay-pride parade.

"It's nonsense, it's nonsense, and it's nonsense," McCain told reporters after the liberal group MoveOn.org protested what it called McCain's "embrace" of Hagee.

Hagee has endorsed McCain. McCain said he does not accept the views of everyone who endorses him. He said he appreciated Hagee's support for Israel.

The Arizona senator has made cutting government spending a top reason why he should be elected in November.

But he still said he supported billions of dollars of spending to strengthen New Orleans' levee system and rebuild the 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 said any such votes were against legislation that included "wasteful, pork-barrel spending" with projects that did not go through normal congressional review.