Katrina Loose Ends #1

Saturday's NO Times-Picayune has a story, one of several about a Gov. Blanco document dump for Congressional Katrina investigations, that details the disagreement between the Gov and the Pres over the deployment and status of National Guard troops during the early days of the disaster. Written from Baton Rouge, the story makes clear at least one of Blanco's motives in resisting Bush's demand for "federalizing" the Guard troops in the state, i.e., putting them all under federal control: that would place the Guardsmen under the Federal Posse Comitatus law, which forbids federal troops from performing law-enforcement duties. What's missing, since there's no reporting in the story from Washington, is what was Bush's motive in insisting on the federalization. The Bush-Blanco dispute, of course, resulted in a delay of troops arriving on scene.