Editorial: Bush mum on Katrina papers

Monday, Dec. 12, 2005 | 8:53 a.m.

After his administration failed miserably to coordinate an effective initial response to Hurricane Katrina, President Bush sought to make amends by visiting the Gulf Coast region numerous times in September and October. He also gave several national speeches and radio talks in which he promised massive federal aid to the communities stricken by the worst storm in the country's recent history.

Since early November, however, Bush has been strangely silent about the hurricane and its still-suffering victims. In a story last week on lagging federal construction aid to the region, Bloomberg News reported that Bush has mentioned the disaster just six times in recent weeks, and then only fleetingly.

And it is not just the victims of Hurricane Katrina that Bush has been brushing off. The president is ignoring requests from a special House committee created to investigate the administration's failure to quickly and efficiently respond to warnings about the hurricane and to the tragic events immediately following the storm.

Since Sept. 30 the committee, chaired by Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., has been seeking documents from the White House and Cabinet members. The documents, including e-mails, would reveal how the president and his top staff reacted after learning of Katrina's destructive path. The White House has consistently missed deadlines that the committee has set for turning over the documents. The best the White House has done is to offer a "background briefing" to the committee, a charade that would not be in keeping with the committee's need to independently examine these documents.

Davis' committee is composed entirely of Republicans, as the House Democrats refused to participate because they believed an independent investigation would be more reliable. So the excuse that the committee is engaging in partisan gamesmanship is not there for Bush. On Nov. 9 the committee threatened to send subpoenas if the records were not forthcoming by Nov. 18. So far the committee has held off on that threat.

We urge the committee to follow through with the subpoenas, as it is facing a February deadline to finish its investigation. The Bush administration's penchant for secrecy should not prevail over the committee's urgent task of compiling a thorough report.