President Bush: Swiftly to the scene of catastrophe

Bush at the scene of tornado devastation in Greensburg, Kansas, in May. White House photo

by Mark Silva

President Bush, still recovering from the political impact of his administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina nearly two years ago, has deployed quickly to the scenes of more recent catastrophes.

The president will fly to Minneapolis on Saturday, three days after a stunning collapse of the interstate highway bridge over the Mississippi River which claims a still-growing death toll as missing victims are recovered.

But first comes the first lady. Laura Bush – who already had scheduled appearances in Minneapolis today in conjunction with the Republican National Committee’s summer meeting there in preparation for next year’s presidential nominating convention in the Twin Cities – shifted swiftly today to the scene of the bridge collapse with words of consolation for victims and their families and thanks for emergency workers.

"There’s so many good stories,” Mrs. Bush said of the disaster response in Minneapolis. It "lifts people and it really encourages people.”

Already this year, the president has arrived quickly at the scenes of devastating tornadoes in Greensburg, Kansas, and Enterprise, Alabama.

The double-barreled visit of the Bushes in Minnesota – heart of a region where the Republican Party hopes to make electoral inroads in the next presidential campaign, starting with its 2008 convention – stands in marked contrast to the time-lag in emergency response for which the administration suffered great criticism after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and the Gulf coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi on Aug. 29, 2005.

Bush at tornado wreckage in Alabama in March. White House photo.

The president had flown over New Orleans two days after Katrina on his way from California via Texas to Washington, making a low-flying inspection by air, a scene captured with a photograph of the president gazing through a window of Air Force One.

But it was four days after Katrina made landfall before Bush landed on the Gulf Coast, and when he did he uttered words for rescue workers at the regional airport in Mobile that would haunt him long afterward. He told Michael Brown, then director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency: “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.’’

“Why is he going to these places now?’’ asks Douglas Brinkley, historian at Tulane University and author of The Great Deluge. “His lack of putting his bootheels in Louisiana or Mississippi in the days after Katrina is one of the low marks of his presidency. He did the famous Air Force One fly-over, and there was really no excuse for him not to have gone.’’

“Not only did his poll numbers tank, but he also took a beating from the public,’’ Brinkley told the Tribune today. “The lesson is, if you can’t immediately get to the site of a disaster’’ it must at least be acknowledged. “It’s Politics 101. By you showing up, you are saying the whole country cares.’’

Brinkley suggests: “I think you are seeing him try to compensate now… He is kind of doing what a president should do now.’’

Yet, for all the political implications that Minnesota holds for the Republican Party next year, Brinkley also suggests that Bush would have traveled swiftly to the site of any catastrophe such as the Mississippi River bridge collapse.

“Minnesota was picked as the state for the convention because it’s a must-win state for the Republicans,’’ Brinkley said. “But wherever this occurred, President Bush would have gone, because he took such a drubbing over his Katrina inaction….. He had no choice. He had better get to Minnesota quick.’’

In the nearly two years that have lapsed since Katrina, amid many recriminations for failed federal, state and local responses to the emergency, both the president and first lady have made many personal return trips to New Orleans and smaller Gulf Coast communities still recovering from the nation’s most costly natural disaster. The president no longer receives daily briefings on the situation on the Gulf, the White House said this week, but he keeps a regular watch on the progress of Gulf Coast rebuilding.

This year, Bush has paid quick attention to other natural calamities – if not always traveling there immediately. Two days after a tornado devastated the town of Greensburg, Kansas, in early May, the president stood outside the church where he worships in Washington to say “our hearts are heavy.’’

He offered words of comfort and hope: “There's a certain spirit in the Midwest of our country, a pioneer spirit that still exists, and I'm confident this community will be rebuilt. To the extent that we can help, we will. The most important thing now, though, is for our citizens to ask for the good Lord to comfort those who hurt.’’

Three days later, Bush traveled to Greensburg, where he was pictured comforting and kissing the forehead of a storm victim. “A lot of us have seen the pictures about what happened here, and pictures don't do it justice,’’ Bush said in Greensburg. ”I am struck by the strength of the character of the people who live here in the Plains -- people who refuse to be -- who refuse to have their spirit affected by this storm; as a matter of fact, who are willing to do what it takes to rebuild in a better way.’’

On March 3, the day after tornadoes left ruins in Alabama and Georgia, the president traveled to the scene, stopping at a high school in Enterprise, Ala., to say: “Today I have walked through devastation that's hard to describe….

“It looks as bad from the air as it looks from the ground,’’ Bush said. “And you can see right here the effects of the storm. But the biggest effect of the storm is the shattered lives. We can rebuild buildings, and the fundamental question is, will the spirit stay strong in Enterprise, Alabama. I predict that it not only will stay strong, it will be strengthened. ‘’

The day before those tornadoes, the president had made another in a series of visits to the Gulf Coast to celebrate some of the rebuilding there.

Dining at Lil Dizzy’s Cafe in New Orleans on March 1, the president said: “I committed to stay involved in the rebuilding… I committed to the people of this part of the world and the Gulf Coast that the federal government would fund recovery and stay committed to the recovery. And one of the reasons I have come down is to hear from you. I fully understand that there are frustrations and I want to know the frustrations. And to the extent we can help, we'll help’’

“I told the people that I would work with the Congress to write a $110 billion check -- the people of Louisiana and Mississippi, and that check has been written,’’ Bush said, aware of continuing trouble which communities have had rebuilding and recovering from a hurricane two years gone. “And now it's incumbent upon us to get the money into people's hands.’’