Dean Decries Katrina Response

DNC Chairman Visits Ninth Ward

NEW ORLEANS, April 21 -- Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, touring a neighborhood devastated by Hurricane Katrina, ripped into the Bush administration Friday for failing to move faster to clean up the city, and he predicted that voters will punish President Bush and the Republican Party for what he called the federal government's inadequate response to the storm.

"I think it's a searing, burning issue, and I think it's going to cost George Bush his legacy, and it's going to cost the Republicans the House and Senate [in November] and maybe very well the presidency in the next election," Dean said on his first visit to New Orleans since the hurricane hit. "People will never forget this."

Dean's comments reopened a political debate that first erupted in the weeks after Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in late August, when the White House and the Federal Emergency Management Agency were roundly criticized for their failure to respond more effectively after rising waters breached the city's levees and inundated large areas of the city.

The former Vermont governor said a more effective federal government by now would have removed the large piles of trash, wrecked cars, uprooted trees and other debris that lines streets in the neighborhoods hit worst. "Nine months after the hurricane, to have this -- this is ridiculous," he told reporters.

Republicans responded sharply to Dean's criticism. "It's sad that Howard Dean and the Democrats would once again look to exploit this human tragedy for political gain," said Brian Jones, communications director for the Republican National Committee.

White House deputy press secretary Ken Lisaius said that 80 percent of non-demolition debris, totaling about 80 million cubic yards, already had been removed in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast, and said that much of what remains is on private property. He said the federal government will continue to pay 100 percent of the cost of removing debris until June 30 and 90 percent thereafter.

Aiming directly at Dean, he said: "Unlike some who travel to the region to participate in one-stop photo ops to point fingers, the president has made a firm commitment to provide the Gulf Coast region with the relief and rebuilding effort they require. That's why we have made over $87.5 billion in direct relief available to the region."

Dean, who is in New Orleans for the DNC's spring meeting, traveled to the Ninth Ward, the scene of some of the most severe flooding. There he donned a white protective suit and, along with other DNC members, joined volunteers from the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) in helping gut and remove debris from the brick home of Vincent Copper, 68.

Other DNC members have spent parts of their days here volunteering in the cleanup effort at several locations.

Inside the Copper house, workers hacked drywall off of its studs, removed mattresses and other ruined household goods and sifted through the family's personal effects. Copper, who has lived there since 1971, said this was the first day anyone has been able to work on cleaning up the interior of the flooded property. "It's been slow," he said of progress in the area, "but they say Rome wasn't built in a day."

Dean pushed several wheelbarrows full of trash from the house to a growing pile at the edge of the street, with photographers clustered around. As he stepped into his protective clothing, several volunteers complained to one another that the DNC group appeared to be there more for show than to help. Other ACORN workers thanked the party chairman for the efforts of DNC volunteers.

Surveying the scene along the narrow, weed-infested street where waters appeared to have risen to 10 feet or more, Dean said Democrats would have done better. "If Bill Clinton was in the White House, this neighborhood wouldn't look like this," he said. "These houses wouldn't be rebuilt, because that's going to take some time and some money and so forth and so on. But this neighborhood would be cleaned up, and these houses would be cleaned up."

Earlier, Dean sought to clarify confusion over comments this week on immigration. He said that border security is a top priority for Democrats this year, but that it must be done in the context of comprehensive immigration reform. "It needs to be comprehensive reform, or there's not going to be any," he said.

Dean said he opposes the kind of guest-worker program originally favored by Bush, and he said he prefers comprehensive reform that includes a path toward legal status and citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the country. He also called the compromise bill now stalled in the Senate "better than nothing."