Smoking Gun

You were waiting for the smoking gun that would blow the lid off the right wing lies about Katrina and highlight the Bush Administration’s inept and potentially negligent response? After John Conyers established earlier in the day that Governor Blanco filed her request for assistance timely, the fine reporters at Knight-Ridder once again get the jump on their overpaid peers at the Post and Times and piece together a key fact tonight, that others like Josh Marshall have noted earlier.

In short, DHS secretary Michael Chertoff abdicated his existing responsibility to activate federal forces without waiting for any request from Governor Blanco, and wasted at least 36 hours of critical time before empowering FEMA to act. And the system wasn’t the problem, it was the White House...

Thanks to Atrios for the link.