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<blockquote data-quote="lkjh" data-source="post: 47926">What about the governor of the state, what was his play in this game? &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;State of Louisiana&nbsp; &nbsp;Constitution&nbsp; &nbsp;Article IV, Section 5: Duties and Responsibilities of the Governor&nbsp; &nbsp;Pp (i), section (J): &quot;Commander-in-Chief. The governor shall be commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the state, except when they are called into service of the federal government. He may call out these forces to preserve law and order, to suppress insurrection, to repel invasion, or in other times of emergency.&quot;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[Once again, the governor (and mayor) was elected to a position they thought would be largely ceremonial with no thought given to actually managing during a crisis. Their response to this event was to wait and have someone else take care of them, all the while blaming others.] &nbsp;&nbsp;[Also see: &nbsp;<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090301680.html" target="_blank">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090301680.html</a> &nbsp;and note the following:] &nbsp;&nbsp;Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D). Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state&#039;s emergency operations center said Saturday.&nbsp; &nbsp;The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. &quot;Quite frankly, if they&#039;d been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals,&quot; said the source, who does not have the authority to speak publicly.&nbsp; &nbsp;A senior administration official said that Bush has clear legal authority to federalize National Guard units to quell civil disturbances under the Insurrection Act and will continue to try to unify the chains of command that are split among the president, the Louisiana governor and the New Orleans mayor.&nbsp; &nbsp;Louisiana did not reach out to a multi-state mutual aid compact for assistance until Wednesday, three state and federal officials said. As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, the senior Bush official said.&nbsp; &nbsp;[Friday in the first paragraph was Aug 26.&nbsp; Saturday in the first paragraph was yesterday, Sept 3.&nbsp; Wednesday in the last paragraph was Aug 31.&nbsp; Saturday in the last paragraph was yesterday, Sept 3.&nbsp; Yes, it is an intentionally obfuscatory (com)Post article. ]</blockquote>

[QUOTE="lkjh, post: 47926"] What about the governor of the state, what was his play in this game? State of Louisiana Constitution Article IV, Section 5: Duties and Responsibilities of the Governor Pp (i), section (J): "Commander-in-Chief. The governor shall be commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the state, except when they are called into service of the federal government. He may call out these forces to preserve law and order, to suppress insurrection, to repel invasion, or in other times of emergency." [Once again, the governor (and mayor) was elected to a position they thought would be largely ceremonial with no thought given to actually managing during a crisis. Their response to this event was to wait and have someone else take care of them, all the while blaming others.] [Also see: [url="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090301680.html"]http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090301680.html[/url] and note the following:] Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D). Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state's emergency operations center said Saturday. The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. "Quite frankly, if they'd been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals," said the source, who does not have the authority to speak publicly. A senior administration official said that Bush has clear legal authority to federalize National Guard units to quell civil disturbances under the Insurrection Act and will continue to try to unify the chains of command that are split among the president, the Louisiana governor and the New Orleans mayor. Louisiana did not reach out to a multi-state mutual aid compact for assistance until Wednesday, three state and federal officials said. As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, the senior Bush official said. [Friday in the first paragraph was Aug 26. Saturday in the first paragraph was yesterday, Sept 3. Wednesday in the last paragraph was Aug 31. Saturday in the last paragraph was yesterday, Sept 3. Yes, it is an intentionally obfuscatory (com)Post article. ] [/QUOTE]

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