Under sharp questioning by Rep. Stephen Buyer, R-Indiana, Blanco defended her decision not to agree to agree to President Bush's request that she turn over command of the Louisiana National Guard to the U. S. Department of Defense's control.
'All governors utilize the National Guard because they have law enforcement authority. DOD troops do not have law enforcement authority,' Blanco said. 'If I hadn't had the National Guard backing me up, we would still be rescuing people.'
Col. Jeff Smith, head of the state's emergency preparedness effort, told the committee that the Louisiana National Guard, state troopers and wildlife agents had evacuated the Superdome, the interstate interchanges and the New Orleans Convention Center before federal troops arrived.
Smith said if the federal government had followed the national disaster plan in catastrophic events, 'the troops would have been on the ground' earlier."
More of that phony argument that Blanco delayed rescue operations because she, just like Haley Barbour, refused Bush's plan to federalize the National Guard.
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