Dear Editor, Blanco needs to accept responsibility for her administration’s failures

Blanco visits Franklin clinic
January 30, 2007
Grants may not be enough to keep local shrimpers in business
February 1, 2007
Blanco visits Franklin clinic
January 30, 2007
Grants may not be enough to keep local shrimpers in business
February 1, 2007

Gov. Kathleen Blanco is at it again. She is now claiming the federal government is conspiring against her and the people of Louisiana.

Her remarks last Tuesday stating that there should be a congressional investigation into the federal government’s response to Louisiana are based solely on the remarks of the discredited former FEMA director, Michael Brown. He alleges that responses from the storm were directed on a partisan/gender basis without naming a single source which could back up this outlandish claim.


It seems that Gov. Blanco will do anything to deflect blame for her own administration’s failures, even believing Michael Brown.


As governor and the leader of our state, the buck stops with Kathleen Blanco, and the only person to miss this piece of wisdom is the governor herself.

Gov. Blanco maintained the federal government slowed aid to Louisiana and gave more money to Mississippi proportionately.


Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour responded by saying that Congress sees a responsible handling of the appropriated funds to Mississippi for hurricane reconstruction and has been “getting their money’s worth.”


Since last June, President Bush and Congress stepped up and gave Louisiana what it asked for in terms of reconstruction money with $4.2 billion more in Louisiana housing money and $3.7 billion in levee reconstruction added to the Katrina effort.

Speaking of proportions, Mississippi has issued 9,902 homeowner recovery grants out of about 17,000 applications compared to Louisiana’s paltry 258 grants out of 101,657 applications. This is a comparison of 58% applications granted in Mississippi to an embarrassing .25% applications granted for Louisiana.


In typical Blanco-fashion, however, this .25% is explained away with another public plan to investigate ICF International, the company responsible for managing federal funds for restoring owner-occupied homes and repairing rental property. Gov. Blanco perpetually forgets that she is the elected official responsible for the current state of affairs, including hiring ICF, and that it is under her leadership that we must emerge from the economic and public policy malaise Louisiana has been stuck in for over a year.

Gov. Blanco’s criticisms are infuriating in their irresponsibility and hypocrisy.

Indeed, desperate times do sometimes call for desperate measures.

Now is the time for confident leadership and a strong sense of direction for Louisiana’s rebirth in Hurricane Katrina and Rita’s wake rather than weak executive management, cynical partisan accusations, and epic incompetence. Louisiana needs a strong leader who will take responsibility for her errors, rectify her mistakes, and create sensible plans and policy decisions to lead its constituents down the road of recovery.

Does Gov. Blanco have a plan for Louisiana, or are her actions empty and meaningful only in the sense that she appears to be doing something?

I fear that Gov. Blanco possesses neither a plan nor a clue.

James Quinn

Executive Director

Republican Party of Louisiana