Monday, September 19, 2005

Crocodile Tears

This is an understatement:

Story of a mother’s desperate calls from nursing home skewed

The Jefferson Parish president's emotional retelling of a mother's desperate calls from a New Orleans nursing home included details that conflict with the timeline of the tragedy.

The story, of a colleague's mother begging her son for rescue as flood waters rose after Hurricane Katrina, came to prominence on Sunday, Sept. 4, when Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish in New Orleans, was interviewed by Tim Russert on NBC's Meet the Press. (MSNBC is a Microsoft-NBC joint venture.)

New details and interviews with the son whose mother died in the flood show that the tragedy unfolded from Saturday through Monday, Aug. 29 — not Monday through Friday, Sept. 2 as recounted by Broussard. The owners of the nursing home were indicted Tuesday for the deaths of more than 30 residents, which officials say occurred on Aug. 29.

In the course of the interview, in which Broussard was expressing frustration with the slow-footed response by the federal government to the hurricane, he related the personal story of a man whose mother had died in the flooding caused by Katrina. Broussard, who did not identify the man by name at the time, broke down in tears as he related the story. As the Meet the Press transcript shows, Russert paused the interview to allow Broussard to compose himself.


Emphasis mine.

In other words, Broussard lied about the woman's death, for the express purpose of shifting the blame for it away from the local government - where it belongs - to the FedsBush Administration.

Just when I think that the Democrats can't go any lower in their Bush-bashing, they prove me wrong. Excuse me now, while I dry my eyes. ;-)

Hat Tip - Drudge Report

No comments: