Russert to Chertoff: "Resign!"

Leave it to DNC mouthpiece Tim Russert to trumpet the horns of "someone must pay for this, and I'd prefer it to be a Republican!" You would think that, like Homeland Chief Michael Chertoff said, we could all agree that first we rescue and clean up, and then we look into investigating the breakdown of actions. Alas, we cannot all agree. From NewsMax:

Siding with critics of President Bush's handling of the Hurricane Katrina crisis, NBC "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert pressed Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff to resign on Sunday.

Reading extensive quotes from a New York Daily News editorial sharply critical of Chertoff, Russert demanded to know: "Mr. Secretary, are you or anyone who reports to you contemplating resignation?"

The top Bush security official made it clear that he had no intention of stepping down, saying "We will have time to go back and do an after-action report, but the time right now is to look at what the enormous tasks ahead are."

Still, Russert continued pressing Chertoff on his fitness for office, saying, "many Americans believe now is the time for accountability."

"Your Web site says that your department assumes primary responsibility for a national disaster," he continued in prosecutorial tones.

"If you knew a hurricane 3 storm was coming, why weren't buses, trains, planes, cruise ships, trucks provided on Friday, Saturday, Sunday to evacuate people before the storm?"

Chertoff reminded the by-now agitated moderator that under the Emergency Operations Act, "the responsibility and the power, the authority, to order an evacuation rests with state and local officials.

"The federal government comes in and supports those officials," he explained. "That's why [FEMA Chief] Mike Brown got on TV on Saturday and he told people to start to get out of there."

Neither Russert nor Chertoff noted that more than a hundred of city school buses sat idle next to the Superdome storm center as evacuation orders were issued. Three days later, after the 17th Street Levee broke, the buses were underwater.

Buses next to the Superdome...idle? Let me guess: it was Bush's job to coordinate using the buses to get people out of there, right? Not the mayor of New Orleans...no, he couldn't possibly be expected to coordinate something like this in his own city. Plus, he's just a tad too black to be criticized for his ineptness, right? Why, to heap any criticism on him would be demonstrative of bigotry!

Far easier to blame yet another problem in the world on Bush: global warming, hurricanes, high gas prices, the Eagles losing the Super Bowl, Cindy Sheehan's mother's stroke, etc.