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Still awaiting answers on Katrina

In New Orleans' Jackson Square, President Bush made a promise to the nation last fall. "This government will learn the lessons of Hurricane Katrina," he said. "... Congress is preparing an investigation, and I will work with members of both parties to make sure this effort is thorough."

Look who's hiding now. As two congressional committees explore why communications at the highest levels of government failed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the president is employing radar silence. His advisers are even telling former Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael Brown not to divulge conversations with the president or vice president.

The public explanation has a staleness about it. White House spokesman Trent Duffy said Bush needs to "preserve any president's ability to get advice from advisers on a confidential basis." More likely, the president is not eager to draw more attention to his passive response immediately following the storm. And e-mails do tend to be revealing. One uncovered previously by the Washington Post, a missive from Brown's deputy, offered this about the White House staff: "None of them have a clue about emergency management."

While the White House worries about spin, the House and Senate investigative committees are simply trying to find answers. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, asked Tuesday why an extensive preparedness exercise in 2004 dubbed "Hurricane Pam" had produced no discernible result.

"As a dry run for the real thing, Pam should have been a wake-up call that could not be ignored," she said. "Instead, it is apparent that a more appropriate name for Pam should have been "Cassandra' - the mythical prophet who warned of disasters but whom no one believed."

The same president who originally fought creation of the 9/11 commission is now trying to undermine the inquiry into Katrina. But these are not partisan attacks. They are essential fact-finding missions conducted by members of his own party. Forget the politics. The issue, much like the one raised by a new audit exposing reckless waste of reconstruction money in Iraq, is one of competence.

Maybe a less than thorough inquiry will serve the president, but it won't serve the next victims of disaster.

[Last modified January 30, 2006, 00:32:10]