Lieberman Loses Interest

According to Newsweek, Joe Lieberman, chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, has decided maybe it's not so important to hold an investigation into how the Bush administration handled the calamity of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. This is quite a change from his stance as the Connecticut for Lieberman candidate for Senate. At that time, fighting for his political life, he strongly criticized the Bushies for keeping a lid on vital records that might explain just what happened.

Asserting that there were "too many important questions that cannot be answered," Lieberman and other committee Democrats complained in a statement last year that the panel "did not receive information or documents showing what actually was going on in the White House."

Among the missing material: the record of a videoconference in the White House Situation Room in which former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown said he warned senior officials about the dire situation in New Orleans, but was greeted with "deafening silence." Also missing: records believed to include messages and conversations involving the president, Vice President Dick Cheney and their top aides during the days in late August and early September 2005 when the Katrina disaster was unfolding and thousands of city residents were flocking to overcrowded shelters and hanging onto rooftops awaiting rescue.

Now that he's safely ensconced back in the Senate, where he continues to insist that he's an independent Democrat, it's not so important. Take a look at this excuse that his spokesperson, Leslie Philips, gave to the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

The senator believes a more productive use of his time and that of his staff is to make sure legislative fixes are implemented and ensure that a response to a future catastrophe is better. The senator feels the American public has already concluded that the White House response was sorely lacking. Rather than take on the White House and open an old fight, he believes he can be more productive by moving forward.

We all long ago decided that the Bush administration response to the devastation along the Gulf Coast sucked, so what more is there to talk about. Aren't we better off spending our energy in trying to make sure it doesn't happen again? Of course, without examining what happened last time, I'm not sure how we can ever figure out how to avoid it next time.

Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu, one of the few Democrats who stood by Lieberman when he dropped the party to remain in his Senate race, going so far as to campaign with him in Connecticut, didn't quite seem to believe this latest turn of events when contacted by the Times-Picayune:

Knowing Sen. Lieberman the way I do, I know he will work with us, as he has in the past, to get all of the facts about the federal, state and local response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Or not.

There may still be some possibility of investigations in the House, but that's not clear yet. The Times-Picayune seems optimistic, although Newsweek is not so much. Both point out that, while Katrina does not seem to be at the top of the House Government Reform Committee's agenda, at least chair Henry Waxman hasn't ruled it out.