...on the floor of the United States Senate. By criticizing George W. Bush for telling Diane Sawyer that he didn't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees between Lake Ponchartrain and the city of New Orleans.
The highly emotional girl-Senator claimed that an animated figure from Saturday Night Live predicted that the levees would fail, but that's not what Mr. Bill's creator (and supposed personal friend of Landrieu) said at all:
MR. BILL: Gee, kids, I'm not sure we can do our show today because it looks like Hurricane Sluggo is headed right for us here in America's wetlands.
WALTER WILLIAMS, MR. BILL CREATOR: That's right, Mr. Bill. And since New Orleans is below sea level, if a hurricane hit us directly, it could push the water over the levees and fill it to the top.
Even worse for her, the New York Times had pointed out--six days earlier--that, in fact all planning had been based on the idea that the levees would in fact hold. Even headlining the story:
Government Saw Flood Risk but Not Levee Failure
Local, state and federal officials, for example, have cooperated on disaster planning. In 2000, they studied the impact of a fictional "Hurricane Zebra"; last year they drilled with "Hurricane Pam."
Neither exercise expected the levees to fail.
So, Bush was correct. Anyone expect Landrieu to 'revise and extend' her remarks?
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