GOP begins damage control

Republicans tried to limit the political damage from the botched federal response to Hurricane Katrina — with President Bush, members of Congress and military leaders yesterday all promising to look into the failures.

“What I intend to do is lead an investigation to find out what went right and what went wrong,” the president said after meeting with Cabinet members at the White House.

Republicans said they have received the message that there is frustration over the federal response.

“Have I got an earful? You betcha,” said Sen. Norm Coleman, Minnesota Republican, who said he heard about it from voters at Minnesota’s state fair this weekend.

But even as Republicans promised investigations, they made it clear that the first failure was at the state and local levels, where governments are charged with preparation and the first response to disasters.

“I’m a former mayor,” Mr. Coleman said. “The leadership starts at the local level. I didn’t see the local mayor. I didn’t hear from the mayor.”

His focus on state and local officials was echoed by Mr. Bush, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and top congressional Republicans, who said the federal response fell short because, in Mr. Coleman’s words, “the federal officials didn’t do a good enough job of filling that void fast enough.”

The senator from Minnesota said that the federal government must now turn its immediate failure into an opportunity to show it is in control.

Now, both Congress and the president are rushing to fill that void with money.

Mr. Bush was expected to send Congress a reported $40 billion emergency spending package last night, five days after a $10.5 billion emergency bill passed.

The top Democrat in the Senate said the final cost could be $150 billion — the first long-term cost estimate placed on the storm by a high official.

“Through my conversations with officials on the ground and in consultation with Senator Mary Landrieu [of Louisiana], I believe that the recovery and relief operations will cost up to and could exceed $150 billion,” said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat.

At the Pentagon yesterday, the nation’s two top military leaders rejected criticism that they were too slow in deploying troops to storm-ravaged Gulf states, saying they are in the middle of the largest domestic disaster relief effort in U.S. history.

Mr. Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard B. Myers, Joint Chiefs chairman, said Pentagon planners made contingencies once Katrina strengthened in the Gulf of Mexico and ordered thousands of troops and relief supplies once the request was made.

Mr. Rumsfeld ordered a mandatory “lessons learned” on what the armed forces had done right and wrong in the week-old disaster that likely killed thousands in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

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