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(Since you need a password for TNR, I post the article in its entirety and hope I'm not breaking any rules.)
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WHY SCAPEGOATING KATHLEEN BLANCO WON'T PAY.
Southern Steel
by Alexandra Starr
Only at TNR Online
Post date: 09.07.05
After the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina was almost universally condemned, White House officials attempted to redirect blame south--namely, in the direction of Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff declared in a Washington briefing that a primary reason federal resources weren't dispatched earlier was "because our constitutional system really places the primary authority in each state with the governor." A Washington Post article--which ran under the headline "White House Shifts Blame to State and Local Officials"--cited a "senior Bush official" criticizing Blanco for not declaring a state of emergency in the days before the hurricane struck. (The allegation was false, and the Post ran a correction.) When the President made his third trip to the storm-ravaged state on Monday, Blanco reportedly learned of his plans from a news item. Their subsequent joint appearance was, unsurprisingly, far from warm.
At first glance, Blanco might seem an easy target for the White House, and therefore a perfect scapegoat. The 62-year-old grandmother and former teacher comes across as unprepossessing. Her advice to departing New Orleanians--"bring peanut butter sandwiches in your car and bring games for the children"--sounds more like a message from a stay-at-home mom than one from a state chief executive. Plus, it doesn't appear as though her administration hatched a plan to evacuate the New Orleanians who didn't have a car to fill with children and basket lunches.
But the Bush administration should think twice about tangling with Blanco. Like almost all women who have risen to high public office in the South, she has a patina of graciousness, but she's also tough as nails. "She'll ask nicely and then run you over," says John Maginnis, editor of a weekly newsletter that covers Louisiana politics.
For evidence of Blanco's toughness, look no further than her come-from-behind victory in Louisiana's 2003 gubernatorial race. Her opponent Bobby Jindal, a former Rhodes Scholar who led the state's Department of Health and Hospitals at the tender age of 24, made a convincing case that he was better prepared to jumpstart the state's ailing economy. But Blanco successfully turned Jindal's technocratic prowess against him. Despite pledges from both candidates to run positive campaigns, just before election day Blanco unfurled attack ads featuring the former head of a state physicians' group taking the wunderkind to task for the pain his health budget cuts inflicted. Jindal had no time to respond and lost by four points.
In addition to pummeling Jindal, Blanco very cannily cultivated gun owners. While both candidates were NRA-approved, Blanco made a big show of her affinity for guns, going so far as to brandish her hunting permit during a televised gubernatorial debate. That may have been one reason the now-governor was able to make inroads among rural voters. Certainly, Jindal's ethnicity--he's Indian American--may have pushed some conservatives to vote for Blanco. But her self-cultivated image as an "Annie Get Your Gun" kind of woman didn't hurt.
The mix of toughness and warmth that propelled Blanco to victory has been on display as she grapples with the fallout from Katrina. Her response to the looting in New Orleans ("We will restore law and order") was direct and unsparing. She didn't buckle to pressure from the Bush administration to nationalize the state national guard. At the same time, Blanco, who is the state's first female governor, sounded distinctly maternal when she called for a day of prayer last week. "We need to calm ourselves," she told her constituents. "We need to thank the Lord that we are survivors."
Blanco, who appears to be girding for a fight with the administration, could make things complicated for Bush. A big part of Bush's p.r. effort seems to involve making multiple appearances in the devastated region. When Blanco belatedly learned about Bush's visit earlier this week, she cleared her schedule and joined the president on his tour of Baton Rouge--and their obvious mutual dislike dominated subsequent news reports. (Witness the extent of Blanco's remarks when she introduced Bush: "I know I don't need to make any other introduction other than 'Mr. President.'") And it's not just photo-ops that could be marred by the simmering tension. Blanco recently hired former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief James Lee Witt to advise her on recovery efforts (a move that suggested just how much faith she has in the maligned current FEMA director Michael Brown). Witt was widely lauded for turning FEMA around during his tenure from 1993 to 2000. If the White House and Blanco do end up pointing fingers more openly, any criticism Witt levies at the Bush administration would carry weight.
Blanco isn't the only Democratic woman in the South who is hardly demure when it comes to political warfare. Probably the most famous is former Texas Governor Ann Richards, who had a penchant for Harleys and famously derided former President George Bush as "born with a silver foot in his mouth." Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln is unfailingly gracious; but it's worth noting that she began her political career by defeating her former boss in a primary. And Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana isn't exactly a shrinking violet. During the past ten days, she has been vociferous in her defense of Louisiana's leaders, going so far as to say she would punch the president if he continued to try to shift blame from the federal to the state level. Behind the soothing tones and immaculate appearances, these women are steel magnolias. So before Bush picks a fight with Blanco, he might want to study her political pedigree. Or at the very least, place a call to Bobby Jindal.
Alexandra Starr is a former political correspondent for BusinessWeek magazine.
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