nola and martial law

holy shit. from WaPo:

"Shortly after noon on Aug. 31, Louisiana Sen. David Vitter (R) delivered a message that stunned aides to Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D), who were frantically managing the catastrophe that began two days earlier when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.

White House senior adviser Karl Rove wanted it conveyed that he understood that Blanco was requesting that President Bush federalize the evacuation of New Orleans. The governor should explore legal options to impose martial law "or as close as we can get," Vitter quoted Rove as saying, according to handwritten notes by Terry Ryder, Blanco's executive counsel.

Thus began what one aide called a "full-court press" to compel the first-term governor to yield control of her state National Guard -- a legal, political and personal campaign by White House staff that failed three days later when Blanco rejected the administration's terms, 10 minutes before Bush was to announce them in a Rose Garden news conference, the governor's aides said."

isnt that very interesting? you might remember that this whole episode had me very worried at the time - including a post called "nola and martial law"

note that the demand isnt for any humanitarian urgency, or any such - its directly from karl rove - demanding that the law gets sliced & diced. he isnt worried about helping anyone, and he isnt interested in the optics - he just wants the precedent set so that they can toss away posse comitatus at the first opportunity.

apparently the one meeting that i was really interested in wont be included in the document dump, and there werent any notes taken from blanco's team. damn:

"The next day, on a Bush visit, administration officials ganged up on Blanco out of the presence of staff members and tried to bully her into changing her mind, they said. Blanco requested 24 hours."

doesnt that suck? the meeting was on af1 - and nagin was on the plane as well - but they took blanco to the woodshed - and she was so scared of what they might do that she demanded another 24 huors to make the decision. as ive said before, i dont know whether she made the right or wrong decision - but it sure was a brave decision!

i hope we dont have to wait for blanco's book.