’08 hopefuls try new tack post-Katrina

ST. PAUL – John McCain and Barack Obama are offering any help they can on Hurricane Gustav, but neither visited the Gulf Coast until well after Hurricane Katrina devastated the area in 2005.

On the six-month anniversary of Katrina striking the Gulf Coast, 39 senators said they had visited the area while 37 senators – including Obama – had not viewed firsthand the ruins that the hurricane left in its wake. Twenty-four Senate offices – including McCain’s — did not return repeated phone calls seeking comment, according to a 2006 survey conducted by The Hill.

{mosads}There were no media accounts of McCain traveling to the Gulf Coast before he went there in the spring of 2006.

Obama did visit Houston’s Astrodome to meet displaced hurricane victims in the fall of 2005.
Sens. McCain (R-Ariz.) and Obama (D-Ill.), who are now at the top of their party’s respective tickets, are taking a different approach with Hurricane Gustav. McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, accepted an invitation from Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) and traveled to the state to pitch in on hurricane-relief efforts.

After The Hill reported in 2006 that a handful of presidential hopefuls had not traveled to the Gulf Coast but had spent time in key primary states such as New Hampshire, McCain visited the area. At the time, McCain said he wanted to wait until he knew he would not get in the way.
That is the reason Obama says he is not traveling to the regions that are in Gustav’s path.

Yet, Obama did not visit the Gulf Coast until nearly a year after Katrina hit, becoming the 55th senator to go there, according to a tally kept at the time by Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-La.) office.

Obama said then, "There was no magic reason why now instead of earlier. We didn't want to come down here unless there was something concrete and productive to do."

In describing his rationale for not visiting the Gulf Coast this week, Obama said the “tail” of his staff, traveling media, Secret Service and local authorities could get in the way of hurricane-relief initiatives.

The Illinois senator noted this week that he has had conversations with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, and the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency about Gustav.

Obama’s running mate, Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), was also among the senators who had not visited New Orleans or the surrounding areas at the six-month anniversary of Katrina.

Grilled about it on “Meet the Press” by the late Tim Russert, the loquacious Biden paused several seconds before answering that he didn’t want to appear to be grandstanding. Shortly after that interview, Biden toured the Gulf Coast.

Landrieu and other elected lawmakers from the Gulf Coast pleaded repeatedly with their colleagues on Capitol Hill to see the destruction, hoping to convince them that Washington needed to do much more to help the Gulf Coast recover.

In early 2006, Landrieu told The Hill, “I don't think anyone can run for president — Democrat or Republican — until they have been in the shoes of [Gulf Coast residents], walked through their neighborhoods and visited their churches.”

Chris Whittington, chairman of the Louisiana Democratic Party, said a couple years ago that all lawmakers must see the damage firsthand, adding that pictures and videotapes do not do it justice. "You can't even describe it. You have to see it. It's almost overwhelming."

When he visited the Gulf Coast in the spring of 2006, McCain said, "They need our help and they're going to need our help for a long time.”

After the storm, McCain called for one percent of oil company profits to be sent to hurricane victims and urged his colleagues in the Senate to improve the telecommunication infrastructure of New Orleans and other cities.

McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said, “Sen. McCain certainly took the opportunity to visit the flood zones, but more importantly he has shown a strong commitment to hurricane relief and to ensure that mismanaged catastrophes never happen again.”

Palin, meanwhile, was elected as governor of Alaska in 2006, more than a year after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.

Among the presidential candidates who did visit the Gulf Coast within the six-month mark were Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.)

Bill Burton, spokesman for the Obama campaign, noted Obama’s visit to Houston in the fall of 2005 “after being told that going to New Orleans would not be a good idea and would divert important resources.”

The Biden family pitched in on Katrina, Burton said, with Biden’s son Beau deployed to the Gulf Coast with the National Guard while Biden’s wife Jill and son Hunter drove supplies down to Louisiana after the storm hit.

After visiting the Gulf Coast in March of 2006, Burton said Biden helped set up meetings with Republicans senators with the Women of the Storm, a non-partisan group of women whose families were affected by Hurricanes Katrina and/or Rita.

Biden regularly visited New Orleans between 2000 and 2004 when his daughter Ashley attended Tulane University.