White House won’t dispute Donna Brazile’s Katrina praise for Bush

The White House said Friday it won’t disagree with those who want to praise former President George W. Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina.

The comments came in response to Democratic strategist Donna Brazile’s praise for the Republican, which she made while flying to New Orleans with President Obama on Air Force One to mark the storm’s 10th anniversary.

{mosads}Press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters he “certainly wouldn’t be in a position to contradict the assessment” of Brazile and others who have a favorable view of Bush’s efforts to aid the Gulf Coast’s recovery from the devastating storm.

Brazile’s remarks caused a minor stir because of Obama’s past criticism for the 43rd president’s initial response to Katrina.

As a presidential candidate in 2007, Obama declared that the country had “failed the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast” under Bush and argued his administration would make government more responsive to citizens in need.

And during his speech in New Orleans Friday, the president said Katrina “started out as a natural disaster” but “became a man-made disaster — a failure of government to look after its own citizens.”

When asked to specifically comment on Bush’s response, Earnest replied he did not want to “relitigate” the issue.

Brazile, a Louisiana native who served on the state’s post-storm recovery authority, said Thursday that after a “slow start” under Bush, “we got it right.”

She praised Bush for pouring more than $120 billion into rebuilding New Orleans and other Gulf communities over the opposition of some Republicans on Capitol Hill.

She also applauded Obama for honoring his campaign promises to ramp up the federal government’s efforts to help the region recover.

“People forget that in 2005, he was still a state senator, and he went down to Texas to many of the shelters in other areas to help with some of the medical needs,” she said. “And he made a commitment then that if he was in the Senate he would help us, and he did.”