Louisiana Gov. Blanco says Army brought attitude, not resources

One flashpoint came over the weekend, when Blanco said she rebuffed an attempt by the White House to seize control of the mounting military presence in Louisiana, including thousands of state National Guard forces under her authority. Then Bush made an unusual return visit to the state Monday, just days after surveying the damage - a trip that members of Blanco's staff said caught them by surprise and caused a certain level of consternation.

"We had no idea the president was coming," said Blanco's communications director, Robert Mann, adding that the governor was forced to cancel a trip to visit evacuees in Houston so she could meet with Bush.

The high-level tug-of-war came as recriminations mounted over the pace of the response to the devastation, particularly in the New Orleans area, where survivors were still being rescued Monday from floodwaters a week after the storm hit land.

In the face of fierce criticism, the White House launched a public relations counteroffensive over the weekend to deflect blame, some of which bounced to state and local officials. The effort, The New York Times reported, was being orchestrated by Bush's political director, Karl Rove, and communications director, Dan Bartlett.

In an interview Monday, Bartlett said there was no coordinated strategy to shift blame to Louisiana officials.

"Quite the contrary," he said. "There was a spirit of cooperation in the room today" when Bush and Blanco met.

In the game of political maneuvering for control between Blanco, a Democrat, and Bush, a Republican, the biggest chess pieces are the 13,268 National Guard troops from 29 states under the governor's command - with another 7,845 on the way - and the 7,000 active-duty troops who began arriving Monday under command of the regular Army and the president.

On Monday, two parallel command structures were in place. Major Gen. Bennett Landreneau, head of the Louisiana National Guard, had control of all of the guard forces massed in the state. U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore was in charge of the active-duty forces, including soldiers from the 82nd Airborne division and the 1st Calvary.

Blanco said that when the plain-spoken, cigar-chomping Honore showed up in New Orleans late last week, she thought that her worries about a lack of federal troops and resource were over. Honore quickly became a media darling and the take-charge face of the federal government in New Orleans, barking out orders to surprised National Guards members who aren't even under his control.

Blanco said she liked Honore's style, but was surprised that he arrived with only a few aides in tow.

"He didn't bring any resources," Blanco said. "I just kind of expected, based on my conversations with the White House, that we could be getting a surge of equipment, and we did not."

Friday night, the White House moved to take charge of all the troops in Louisiana. At home, Blanco received a memorandum of understanding from the White House asking her to cede control of the National Guard. According to her staff, Blanco was asked to sign and return the document right away. Blanco consulted with her legal counsel, Terry Ryder, and then refused the request.

"They wanted to take over my National Guard," Blanco said in an interview. "A governor has to have the final say on what's going to happen."

Bartlett said the request was made for efficiency's sake to streamline the chain of command and improve the efficiency of the recovery. He dismissed suggestions that it was done because Blanco is a Democrat.

"We were in the same discussions with (Republican Mississippi Gov.) Haley Barbour," Bartlett said. "This was not about politics."
In what some saw as a not-so-subtle snub, Blanco over the weekend hired a former Clinton administration disaster response chief, James Lee Witt, as an adviser.

The parallel command structure in Louisiana isn't without precedent. After Hurricane Andrew in 1992, federal troops dispatched to Florida to help in the relief and recovery effort were kept under federal control. The governor, meanwhile, retained authority over the National Guard forces. The only major glitch, according to an official from the Florida National Guard, was when the 82nd Airborne Division from Ft. Bragg, N.C., showed up with weapons. Under federal law, only state forces have policing authority, so the weapons were sent back to the base and the soldiers were given humanitarian and relief duties.

When it comes to domestic security, state forces generally take the lead. At a G-8 summit last year in Georgia, state authorities were given control over federal forces, according to John Goheen, a spokesman for the National Guard.

"The reason is that Guard commanders generally have a better working relationship with local authorities," Goheen said. "Guard forces can also perform law enforcement functions. That mission was seen as a harbinger of the future."

Despite the dust-up between Blanco and Bush over command of the boots on the ground, top military commanders at both the state and federal level said they were satisfied with the separate forces.

Landreneau called the military command "very integrated" and said there was no advantage to putting all troops under his control. Adm. Timothy Keating, commander of active-duty forces in North America, agreed. "From our perspective," he said Monday, "it would not have provided an advantage over the current situation."

Brig. Gen. Mike Fleming of the Florida National Guard, who oversaw rescue and recovery efforts through four hurricanes last year, has been called into Louisiana as an adviser. Fleming said the twin command is workable if adequately coordinated. He said some important personal ties bind the separate state and federal military commands: Honore, known as the Ragin' Cajun, is a Louisiana native and has known Landreneau for years. Honore's son serves in Iraq for the Louisiana National Guard, which is under Landreneau's command.

While the military chiefs may have been in step, the political leaders clearly weren't.

Early Monday morning, Blanco was in Baton Rouge preparing to fly to Houston to meet with thousands of Louisiana refugees when she received news that Bush was on his way. Blanco Chief of Staff Andy Kopplin called the White House and got word from Bush Chief of Staff Andrew Card that the president was planning to return to Louisiana in a few hours to follow up on his Friday visit.

The White House notified the media Sunday about the trip. But Blanco aide Bob Mann said Blanco was assured Sunday by the Federal Emergency Management Agency that Bush was not coming. FEMA spokeswoman Nicol Andrews said agency Director Michael Brown knew about the Bush visit but that many lower-level officials didn't, and that was probably why the Blanco administration wasn't notified.

Bartlett said "there was outreach" to the governor's office, "e-mails sent, messages left."

"We apologize if there was any confusion," he said. A Bush visit to Louisiana at a time when Blanco was out of the state would have been a major embarrassment for the governor. It could also have sent the message that Bush, who has been criticized for not moving quickly enough to help Louisiana, was in charge on the ground.

Blanco abruptly canceled the trip to Houston. Bush downplayed suggestions of a state-federal spat.

During a visit to the Bethany World Church in Baton Rouge, which was doubling a shelter for evacuees, Bush said, "Laura and I have come back down to Louisiana ... to let the good people of this region know there's a lot of work to be done, and we're going to continue working with the local and state people to get it done."