Gov. Blanco: "By Friday everything was in control."

This is stunning. President Bush requested that Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco allow her National Guard to be put under the command of the active military commander, Lt. General Honore. The request was apparently made last Friday morning. Honore has been winning plaudits from Mayor Culpa, er, Nagin and just about everyone else involved in the rescue and recovery effort in New Orleans, except Gov. Blanco. Her answer to the president, after 24 hours of study, "No." Her reasoning:

If I had seen a greater purpose, if I had felt it would make an immediate difference, it would have been a no brainer, but by Friday, we had everything in control.

That would be news to Gen. Honore, Mayor Culpa, er, Nagin, President Bush, the citizens of New Orleans, the remaining few New Orleans police officers, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOXNews, WaPo, NYT, Newsweek, Time, the US Congress, Sen. Trent Lott, Sen. Mary Landrieu, the citizens of Houston, The Red Cross, The Salvation Army, rescue helicopter pilots, refugees trapped in the Super Dome and the New Orleans Convention Center, the remaining citizens of the United States, readers and news watchers from around the world as well as Fidel Castro.

Governor Kathleen Blanco and her cadre of experienced and competent political advisors and part-time disaster responders were, in fact, just about the only people on earth who thought that everything was in control in New Orleans this past Friday. With the possible exception, of course, of the Yanomami Indians of the Brazilian Amazon who can't read, don't own TV's or computers, don't know what or where New Orleans is and could not possibly care any less what a "Friday" might be.

TAGS: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, evacuation, incompetent