Editorial: What happened to leadership?

Friday, March 3, 2006 | 7:46 a.m.

The Feb. 15 House report on Hurricane Katrina makes for especially insightful reading now that a pre-storm video of an emergency teleconference, in which President Bush participated, has been made public.

The video, which was leaked to the Associated Press, aired Wednesday. It shows an exchange of information between federal officials and officials of the Gulf States that were in the path of the storm, which struck land early on Aug. 29.

At about noon Eastern time on Aug. 28, Bush joined the teleconference from his ranch in Crawford, Texas, where he was vacationing. Also participating were Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff, then-Federal Emergency Manager Michael Brown and National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield.

Mayfield warned the president that Hurricane Katrina was going to be much larger than Hurricane Andrew, which had stuck South Florida 13 years earlier, killing 40 people, leaving 250,000 people homeless and causing $30 billion worth of property damage. He expressed "grave concern" about the levees in New Orleans.

Brown told Bush and Chertoff that, "We're going to need everything that we can possibly muster, not only in this state and in the region, but the nation, to respond to this event."

The video shows that Bush did not ask a single question. Unbelievable. Instead, he assured the state officials that the federal government was "fully prepared." Chertoff's response after the teleconference was to fly to Atlanta to attend a seminar on bird flu.

In light of what we know happened, the responses by Bush and Chertoff were outrageous. So outrageous, even, as to partially rehabilitate Brown's reputation and turn full attention to their actions. Congress should thoroughly investigate Brown's charges that the reorganization that folded FEMA into Homeland Security left the nation virtually unguarded against natural disasters.

The video proves how detached Bush and Chertoff were from the warnings about Katrina's ferocity. The House report said an active White House response could have "spurred earlier evacuation for those trapped by the floods." In our view, the title of the House report, "A Failure of Initiative," applies as equally to Bush and Chertoff as it ever did to Brown.