Democrats blame 'oblivious' Bush

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Congressional Democrats yesterday laid the blame for the flawed response to Hurricane Katrina squarely on President Bush, saying he was "oblivious" to the crisis immediately after the storm hit.

The Senate's top Democrat asked whether Mr. Bush prepared properly for the disaster while "on vacation," but a Gallup Poll finds that only 13 percent of Americans blame the president.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi lashed out at Mr. Bush, with Mrs. Pelosi taking the unusual action of recounting her private conversation with the president. The California Democrat said she urged Mr. Bush to fire Michael D. Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

"He said, 'Why would I do that?' and I said because of all that went wrong, of all that didn't go right last week. And he said, 'What didn't go right?'

"Oblivious, in denial, dangerous," she said of Mr. Bush.

Mr. Reid, in a letter to the chairman of the Senate committee that will hold hearings on what went wrong in the hurricane response, asked: "How much time did the president spend dealing with this emerging crisis while he was on vacation?" and "Why didn't President Bush immediately return to Washington from his vacation?"

The White House, which has said repeatedly that it would not engage in what it calls the "blame game" over how and why the delivery of food and supplies was delayed for days after the hurricane struck Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi and left most of New Orleans under water, fired back at Democratic critics yesterday, particularly Mr. Reid.

"The senator must not be aware of all the updates that we were providing you all, because I cannot imagine that he would engage in such personal attacks," Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said. "I'd just assume that he is not informed of everything we were doing."

Asked whether Mrs. Pelosi's version of her conversation with Mr. Bush was an "accurate portrayal," Mr. McClellan replied: "No, it's not." He said, "The president was just wanting to know what she was most concerned about."

Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman said: "While countless Americans are pulling together to lend a helping hand, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are pointing fingers in a shameless effort to tear us apart."