To err on the side of slander.

Louisiana’s Democrat Senator, Mary Landrieu, makes news with her yap almost daily of late. On CBS’s Face the Nation [pdf transcript] Sunday, she accused the White House of slandering State and local officials by promoting the notion that they were entirely to blame for the breakdowns in response to Hurricane Katrina:

While the president is saying he wants to work together as a team, I think the White House operatives have a full-court press on to blame state and local officials, whether they’re Republicans or Democrats, whether it’s Haley Barbour or Kathleen Blanco, whether it’s Mayor Nagin or a Republican mayor from Mississippi. And it’s very unfortunate. This federal government has an obligation to support our local and state officials particularly in times of tragedy and distress, not to pile on them, not to make their suffering worse.

Host Bob Schieffer asked her for some proof: “That’s a very strong charge you’ve just leveled. What are some examples of that?”

Landrieu dissembled in response:

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Well, I think that there are journalists throughout town that can give you those examples, and I’ll be happy to provide more detail as the week unfolds. But it’s been very unfortunate, I think, that there is an effort under way to blame the local and state officials, Republicans and Democrats, black and white, and it’s not fair, and it shouldn’t be done. As I said, we should not be blaming anyone right now.

The Senators is saying that though we should not be casting aspersions, she is going to fire them at a specific target: the White House. Just as she did in a press release last Friday:

FEMA has proven to be a shell of what it once was and has been unable and seemingly unwilling to provide the direct and immediate resources necessary in the aftermath of the most devastating natural disaster in American history.

More details as the week unfolds? (Promises, Promises.)

From the AP:

Landrieu’s office said the senator based her accusation in part on comments by the Homeland Security chief, Michael Chertoff, and by administration allies on Capitol Hill, who cited the responsibility of state and local officials in planning for and responding to disasters. She also cited several news stories about a White House campaign to deflect criticism.

So she was raving about her own lunatic impressions. This is unhealthy even when not trying to serve constituents during an ongoing catastrophe.

But Louisiana, thankfully, has another Senator. Said Republican David Vitter, standing outside the Houston Astrodome, to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Sunday [Late Edition transcript]:

[T]here’s a huge difference that I detect from folks here on the ground, whether it’s in Houston at the Astrodome or in Louisiana in the stricken areas and folks in Washington.

I’ve heard all sorts of ridiculous arguments going on from Washington that have to do with the war in Iraq and U.S. mass transit policy under President Bush and the Reagan deficit, God help us.

Nobody here in the stricken area is talking about that nonsense. This is where lives are trying to be rebuilt, and I just wish folks in Washington would get with it and get real and focus on the challenge at hand and stop this from becoming a political football.

Someone blamed President Reagan?

Landrieu to FOX News Sunday host Chris Wallace [transcript]:

[I]t is true that the president gave slightly more [to New Orleans flood-control projects] than Bill Clinton. But what is also true is Bill Clinton was running the largest deficit created by the Reagan administration before him.

This reeks of the odors associated with fishing for nastiness in the hot sun, sans personal deodorant.

But soon-to-be DC lobbyist John Breaux, the former Senator from Louisiana – the Sultan of the Centrists, the Baron of Bipartisanship, the Mullah of the Moderates — said this to the AP about that:

Before he was even asked a question Saturday, Breaux was critical of efforts to lay blame for what many say was a slow rescue and recovery effort that is being blamed for widespread suffering and death in the days after Katrina struck the region on Aug. 29. The Bush administration, Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin have all been criticized from various quarters.

“In the passion of the moment of a national disaster of the magnitude that we have seen, this is not the time or the forum to be engaged in the blame game,” Breaux said.

“Blaming each other does not save a life, does not feed a single family or compensate them in their loss.”

When blame is assessed, Breaux said, he and other current and former members of the state’s congressional delegation will deserve some criticism because they failed to get more money for evacuation efforts and levee strengthening.

“I would put myself and all of those who have served in Congress in the same boat if you will, as to things that could have been done better,” Breaux said.

That is not to suggest that we should pile on John Breaux, of course. Or anyone.

Enough of Landrieu’s lunatic blame Bush game, though it is arguably an improvement on threatening the President with bodily injury.

Someone queue President Reagan:

[B]efore we do anything else, let us remember that tribute really belongs to the 245 million citizens who make up the greatest — and the first — three words in our Constitution: “We the People.'’ It is the American people who endured the great challenge of lifting us from the depths of national calamity, renewing our mighty economic strength, and leading the way to restoring our respect in the world. They are an extraordinary breed we call Americans. So, if there’s any salute deserved tonight, it’s to the heroes everywhere in this land who make up the doers, the dreamers, and the lifebuilders without which our glorious experiment in democracy would have failed.

Those words come from the President’s remarks at the Republican National Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana – August 15, 1988.

Americans err on stand by the side of Americans, as per Senator Vitter’s comment above. Senator Landrieu plays both the blame game and the blame-for-the-blame game.

An excellent adventure indeed.

[posted first at RedState.org]