McCain And Katrina Ravaged New Orleans: Facts vs Spin

Lucky for GOP presidential candidate John McCain, The Associated Press has a report on his New Orleans visit that omits what he and his supporters have said about the city. McCain is in New Orleans on what he calls his forgotten areas tour.

John McCain toured still hurricane-damaged areas of New Orleans and declared that if the disaster had happened on his watch, he would have immediately landed his plane at the nearest Air Force base...

...McCain was unsparing in his criticism of the Bush administration. He said Congress must share some of the blame, too.

Drawing a sharp contrast to President Bush, McCain said he would have landed his plane "at the nearest Air Force Base and come over personally."

But on the day Hurricane Katrina actually ravaged New Orleans, Senator McCain wasn't far off from President Bush. In fact, the two were standing right next to each other. Check out the slideshow of the two celebrating McCain's birthday on the tarmac.

• • President Bush holds up a birthday cake for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., upon his arrival at Luke Air Force Base in Glendale, Az., Monday, Aug. 29, 2005. McCain turned 69 Monday. Bush is traveling and will attend "conversations" with experts and the elderly

While traveling in New Orleans today, McCain told voters that such a disaster of government response "will never happen again in this country." And yet, the Democratic National Committee points out that McCain voted against relief measures for Katrina victims multiple times, as well as voting against an investigation into the failures of the government response. McCain also voted against providing additional funding for first responders' communication systems, despite claiming today:

We know that we had a situation where first responders were unable to communicate with each other. Where government agencies were getting information by watching cable television, rather than having a flow of information themselves.

As for solutions, John McCain told reporters he didn't know if he'd rebuild the lower 9th ward as president. "That is why we need to go back is to have a conversation about what to do -rebuild it, tear it down, you know, whatever it is," he said.

While he was in Lousiana
Think Progress reports:

Pastor John Hagee -- whose endorsement Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said this past Sunday he was "glad to have" -- told NPR's Terry Gross that "Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans." "New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God," Hagee said, because "there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came."

McCain first dodged the issue of Hagee when he brought up by a New Orleans voter during a town hall. Watch here.

McCain later told reporters the comments were "nonsense" no less than eight times, despite saying this weekend that he still is glad to have Hagee's endorsement.

It's nonsense, it's nonsense, it's nonsense, it's nonsense, it's nonsense. I dont have anything additional to say. It's nonsense, it's nonsense, it's nonsense, I don't have anything more to say...it's nonsense. I reject it categorically.

McCain has still not rejected John Hagee's endorsement.

Comments

[live]

oh i forgot to mention how nice it was that the flags are out!! gotta be patriotuic while you let americans die...

[Rog49Thomas]

It's OK if they volunteered.

[Rog49Thomas]

Or it they chose to live somewhere and didn't get into their Lexuses to leave when the rain started.

[enyapjeff]

At a boy Browny McSame!!!!

The guy will say anything for a vote. Believe me the voters in NOLA will remember those 5 long days on the roofs and in the Super Bowl. These citizens were treated by these same ol repugs like folks in a developing nation.

[buckeye59]

Wessmith got it right on the money.Mcca­in is from Arizona not louisiana,it wasn't his jurasdiction so to speak.As I recall Louisianas governer and the mayor of New orleans should be taking heat on this along with Bush.As for the democratic primary reminds me of a 3 stooges episode,ny­uck,nyuck,­nyuck

[live]

Thats bull

MCcAIN is saying he wouold have done it different and he would do it different in the future doesnt look like it- looks like they are more interestged in hamming it up for the press;.
and let the gov handleit " myself i might have told bush that N. O. was urgent and leadership was needed -it wouild be inhumane to eat cake while americans were drowning and what is also so disgusting about this is that they dont seem to care how it looks-PR- to eat cake while americans were dying.

I guess if it were you you would be saying to bushie "lets eat cake mmm good -leave it to the governor"? this waS A huge disaster no state could have handled it. and considering the billions that we spend on FEMA and national security youd t"THUNK" we could have saved lives there.

[Tommygun264]

So? Did any of the reporters covering McCain stop licking his boots long enough point out the disparity between his remarks today and his actions back then?

[radlib1]

John McCain was licking the icing off his birthday cake with Bush at the the time of Katrina. What makes you think that he would do any different now?

George W. Bush is a pig and John McCain is a pig. Neither of them has now or then cared about the plight of the "common people." John McCain divorced his first wife (who stuck with him during his POW years) and then, after numerous affairs, married a much younger, pretty heiress to a $100 million dollar beer fortune. Then, and only then, did John McCain go into politics. His wife's family beer fortune sponsored him. How f*cking patriotically pathetic is that?

Vote for John "Suds" McCain. Beer before honor.

[OtayPanky]

You have to admire McBushCo here.

I mean - think about it.

Marie Antoinette said (infamously), "Let them eat cake".

George and John stepped up to the plate and ate the cake themselves.

That's what I call leadership! A heckuva job!

[filo]

Off with their heads!

[scampy123]

Do Americans need to choose between the lying Clintons or Ken and Barbie McCain?
There is something wrong with these people.
Who you gonna believe me or your own eyes and ears?
The decent Obama should be home and dry with this kind of low life competition.
The Clintons are congenital liars and McCain is seriously flawed and a danger to the word if elected.

[lysistrata]

You just keep rehashing the old republican lies about the Clintons. Clinton left office with more than 60% approval. Yes, he was and is not perfect, neither is Hillary, same for Obama.

[HLMerkin]

Hillary simply cannot tell the truth. Here's her scorecard:

Admitted Lies

• Chelsea was jogging around the Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. (She was in bed watching it on TV.)
• Hillary was named after Sir Edmund Hillary. (She admitted she was wrong. He climbed Mt. Everest five years after her birth.)
• She was under sniper fire in Bosnia.
• She learned in The Wall Street Journal how to make a killing in the futures market. (It didn't cover the market back then.)

Whoppers She Won't Confess To

• She didn't know about the FALN pardons.
• She didn't know that her brothers were being paid to get pardons that Clinton granted.
• Taking the White House gifts was a clerical error.
• She didn't know that her staff would fire the travel office staff after she told them to do so.
• She opposed NAFTA at the time.
• She was instrumental in the Irish peace process.
• She urged Bill to intervene in Rwanda.
• She played a role in the '90s economic recovery.
• The billing records showed up on their own.
• She thought Bill was innocent when the Monica scandal broke.
• She was always a Yankees fan.
• She had nothing to do with the New Square Hasidic pardons
• She negotiated for the release of refugees in Macedonia (who were released the day before she got there).

[DJJD10]

It makes me so disheartened that both Democratic candidates would catch unbelievable flak for such contradictions. Sen. McCain will never be called out on this because much of the MSM and radio pundits are so intent to be the first to cover Sens. Obama's and Clinton's missteps that he gets a fat, Newscorpian pass.

First, he delivers a speech on MLK Day after refusing to honor the man in Ariz. and then had the audacity to claim that because of his military service, MLK's civil rights accomplishments were unbeknownst to him! Horsesh!t.

And how is this incident - eating cake and laughing it up with Bush (the one McCain is castigating for inaction) and now saying that he would have landed at the nearest AF base and came to the rescue - any different than HRC's Bosnia faux pas?

Ahhhhh... makes me sick!

[kettletop]

Wow. He spins almost as well as Hillary Clinton.

[nativeeyes]

THE SCUM OF AMERICA REARS IT'S HEAD
MCCAIN ,HAGEE AND ROD PARSLEY!!
REPUBLICAN'S KKK
As they throw on their Republican Klanmans hoods running around trying to scare NC people...


Here we go back to the 50's and 60's..

What's next the burning crosses and churches??

EVOLVE PEOPLE, EVOLVE....


WHEN RACIST UNITE!!!@

[WesSmith]

This is way disingenuous, even for Democrats.

Had the storm hit when the photo was taken? Does anyone know?

McCain is the Senator from Arizona, not Louisiana.

Anyone who thinks the Democrats could have better used the Federal government to solve the problems caused by Katrina needs to look at the way the Party runs itself. Take this primary season, for example. They want to run the Federal government but they hold a primary that looks more like a circular firing squad.

[CarlyCorday]

Yes, HuffPost, your time would be more usefully applied to, let's say, organizing a conference on the bare midriff photos of Hannah Montana. Democrats are so disingenuous! Even for Democrats, this is way bad.

[Davwbaird]

Brownie you ass.

[frosty6731]

Katrina response= miserable faillure
Person in charge=Micheal Brown= completely incompetent Bush appointee

[live]

The storm made landfall on the morning this was taken. see the date of the 29th on the photo

People had already evacuated or like so many had spent the night of the 28th in the superdome

Katrina was already a mess. doesnt look like either one were worried about that N.O had weathered the storm badly

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/new-orleans-superdome.htm

[frosty6731]

Thank you for that clarification

[lysistrata]

Fact is, Democrats know how to govern, running circles around the Republicans. but Republicans know how to steal elections better.

[3rdID]

It's hard to EVOLVE_and "change" america if this is constantly repeated, over...and over...and over...and over...and over..., but both parties do it, so go ahead - keep it going...ke­ep dividing the country.

[live]

WHERE ARE THE DEMOCRATS?
CABT WE MAKE A COMMERCIAL?
something in the let them eat cake variety with catholic"the great whore" thrown in
demos will lose again...; it makes me sick we are letting obama get creamed while mccain eats cake
Hagee should be a comercial against mccain

[johnfoirdfw]

Wal Mart got there faster than McSame. What was keeping him away if he felt so benevolent and concerned? The guy is a sham.

[john85msy]

Other countries offered aid to the victims and Bush rejected it. Imagine that, other countries pledged money and aid to a state that suffered a natural disaster in the United Staes.

[Gary47]

Yes, maybe he could've rushed to New Orleans and put his finger in the dike and single-handedly saved the city from certain destruction. Yes Johnny-boy!!!

[JohnJames]

McCain SOUGHT Hagee's endorsement. It's not something that just fell in his lap. A Democrat who did the equivalent would be slaughtered by the media.

[lysistrata]

But McCain did say he does not condone what Hagee said, that should be enough to ask of a Republican. The bar is pretty low for McCain. If he says he is a straight shooter then that is what he is.