Jefferson Parish
President Aaron Broussard as he was interviewed by
Tim Russert on Meet the Press. The
interview
was on Wed, 7 Sept (Day 10). Meet
the Press
with Tim Russert is an NBC show.
Mr.
Broussard's colorful language is fun to read ("give me a better
idiot. Give me
a caring idiot. Give me a sensitive idiot. Just don't give me the same
idiot").
But it's even
more fun to see and hear him speak. Here are the
video feeds to a now-famous speech, followed by the transcript if you
insist on just reading.
Broussard has
done heroic work while struggling to get
Federal assistance.
If
problems, just search on "
Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard interview Tim Russert
on Meet the Press" without the quotes.
DETAILS
This articulate
Parrish President will brief you on the work and
accomplishments of his Emergency Management Office, his Sheriff, his
own Parrish staff, the Levee Board and their authorized crews.
You will hear of local crews and National Guard working together with
trucks and heavy equipment. You may recall that Bush arrived on
the St. Louis Airport tarmac Friday 2 Sept. and told Governor Kathleen
Babineaux
Blanco (D) that she could have the National Guard forces Louisiana requested if
she would sign over all command authority from her State to the Federal
Government. She replied to his face, "I need 24 hours to think
about it," and in the end refused.
To get an
insight into Blanco's refusal and the nature of Federal-Local
government affairs, simply listen to this man's interview below, and imagine putting
Federal control between him and the National Guard trucks he used to
repair 300 feet of breached levee on his own -- a breach not
cataloged by "the secretary" (of Homeland Security) and not authorized
for work. In the video at the end of the
interview, Broussard turns to the story of his building manager:
EMOTIONAL
BREAKDOWN
The guy
who runs this building I’m in, Emergency
Management, he’s
responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard
nursing home and every day she called him and said, “Are you coming,
son? Is somebody coming?” and he said,
“Yeah, Mama, somebody’s coming to get you.” Somebody’s coming to get
you on Tuesday. Somebody’s coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody’s
coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody’s coming to get you on Friday…
and she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night! [Sobbing]
Nobody’s coming to get us. Nobody’s coming to get us…
Jefferson Parish President
Broussard, let me start with you. You
just heard the director of Homeland Security's explanation of what has
happened this last week. What is your reaction?
MR. AARON BROUSSARD: We
have been abandoned by our own country.
Hurricane Katrina will go down in history as one of the worst storms
ever to hit an American coast, but the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
will go down as one of the worst abandonments of Americans on American
soil ever in U.S. history. I am personally asking our bipartisan
congressional delegation here in Louisiana to immediately begin
congressional hearings to find out just what happened here. Why
did it happen? Who needs to be fired? And believe me, they
need to be fired right away, because we still have weeks to go in this
tragedy. We have months to go. We have years to go.
And whoever is at the top of this totem pole, that totem pole needs to
be chain-sawed off and we've got to start with some new leadership.
It's not just Katrina that caused
all these deaths in New Orleans here.
Bureaucracy has committed murder here in the greater New Orleans area,
and bureaucracy has to stand trial before Congress now. It's so
obvious. FEMA needs more congressional funding. It
needs more presidential support. It needs to be a Cabinet-level
director. It needs to be an independent agency that will be able
to fulfill its mission to work in partnership with state and local
governments around America. FEMA needs to be empowered to do the
things it was created to do. It needs to come somewhere, like
New Orleans, with all of its force immediately, without red tape,
without bureaucracy, act immediately with common sense and leadership,
and save lives. Forget about the property. We can rebuild
the property. It's got to be able to come in and save lives.
[For convenience, here is the
quote from President Bush's Director
of the Office of Management and Budget: Early in his presidency, George W
Bush downgraded the Federal Emergency
Management Agency. Such departments, the reasoning went, are for
feeble folk looking for government handouts. In the words of
Bush's budget director Mitch Daniels in 2001: "Many are concerned that
federal disaster assistance may have evolved into an oversized
entitlement programme . . . expectations of when the federal government
should be involved, and the degree of involvement, may have ballooned
beyond what is an appropriate level." ]
We need strong leadership at the top
of America right now in order to
accomplish this and to-- reconstructing FEMA.
MR. RUSSERT: Mr. Broussard,
let me ask--I want to ask--should...
MR. BROUSSARD: You know, just
some quick examples...
MR. RUSSERT: Hold on.
Hold on, sir. Shouldn't the
mayor of New Orleans and the governor of New Orleans bear some
responsibility? Couldn't they have been much more forceful, much
more effective and much more organized in evacuating the area?
MR. BROUSSARD: Sir, they were
told like me, every single day,
"The cavalry's coming," on a federal level, "The cavalry's coming, the
cavalry's coming, the cavalry's coming." I have just begun to
hear the hoofs of the cavalry. The cavalry's still not here yet,
but I've begun to hear the hoofs, and we're almost a week out.
Let me give you just three quick
examples. We had Wal-Mart
deliver three trucks of water, trailer trucks of water. FEMA
turned them back. They said we didn't need them. This was a
week ago. FEMA--we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast
Guard vessel docked in my parish. The Coast Guard said, "Come get
the fuel right away." When we got there with our trucks, they got
a word. "FEMA says don't give you the fuel."
Yesterday--yesterday--FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency
communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our
sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts
armed guards on our line and says, "No one is getting near these
lines." Sheriff Harry Lee said that if America--American
government would have responded like Wal-Mart has responded, we
wouldn't be in this crisis.
But I want to thank Governor Blanco
for all she's done and all her
leadership. She sent in the National Guard. I just repaired a
breach on my side of the 17th Street canal that the secretary didn't
foresee, a 300-foot breach. I just completed it yesterday with
convoys of National Guard and local parish workers and levee board
people. It took us two and a half days working 24/7. I just
closed it.
MR. RUSSERT: All right.
MR. BROUSSARD: I'm telling you
most importantly I want to thank
my public employees...
MR. RUSSERT: All right.
MR. BROUSSARD: ...that have
worked 24/7. They're burned
out, the doctors, the nurses. And I want to give you one last
story and I'll shut up and let you tell me whatever you want to tell
me. [JIN: important insight here on how the mass media work, and
what an "interview" really is.] The guy who runs this building
I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything.
His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she
called him and said, "Are you coming, son? Is somebody
coming?" And he said, "Yeah, Mama, somebody's coming to get
you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming
to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on
Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday." And she
drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night.
MR. RUSSERT: Mr. President...
MR. BROUSSARD: Nobody's coming
to get us. Nobody's coming
to get us. The secretary has promised. Everybody's
promised. They've had press conferences. I'm sick of the press
conferences. For God sakes, shut up and send us somebody.
MR. RUSSERT: Just take a
pause, Mr. President. While you
gather yourself in your very emotional times, I understand, let me go
to Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi.