On the Hill, The Storm's Just Hitting
There was a time when it would have taken longer for the rancor of Washington politics to so fully take hold of the aftermath of a natural disaster. A time, maybe, when that could have waited until the water was back in Lake Pontchartrain; until the dead had been collected, counted, and buried.
That time is not now.
Because in the partisan hothouse of Washington, political advantage is perishable and in constant need of tending. So as Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, erasing some communities and submerging others, it also upended the political agenda in Washington.
Blame. Insisting that the federal government failed her constituents, Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu set a theme sure to recur when she said she was determined to fix blame. "I cannot stand here today and tell you that if all the money we had asked for, if it would have kept the levees up, but I can tell you that it would have given us more protection than we had," she said. "Nor can I say with certainty that full funding for restoring our coasts would have protected those who perished [in Louisiana and Mississippi]. But I can assure you that we would have had at least a fighting chance. I intend to find out just how much of a fighting chance."
The GOP comeback was defensive. House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said in a joint statement: "We all agree that in many areas the initial relief response to Hurricane Katrina was unacceptable at the local, state, and federal levels."
There is, of course, no such agreement. Democrats are on the attack, pummeling the administration for the slow response and saying it is an outrage to try to blame local officials. "It is beyond belief to me that a federal government would try to blame state and local official for something that is a federal responsibility--and that is disaster relief," says Landrieu.
But it is now clear that Katrina will dominate the agenda on Capitol Hill for the foreseeable future. "This has become our major priority," concedes Frist, a Republican from Tennessee. GOP plans to cut taxes are out the window; Social Security overhaul is off the table, and the administration's effort to rein in spending with an eye to cutting the deficit is no longer operative.
Congress quickly approved more than $62 billion in relief aid and promised there will be more. If there is any agreement, it is that Katrina is not going to be cheap. "If this tab does not hit $150 to $200 billion," says Landrieu, "I will be very surprised." And as politicians from both parties acknowledged, the voters are not in the mood for any more surprises.
This story appears in the September 19, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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