"BROWN: I exchanged e-mails and phone calls with [Deputy Chief of Staff] Joe Hagin, [Chief of Staff] Andy Card and the president.
"SHAYS: And what was their reaction? And what was their suggestions on how you should deal with this issue?
"BROWN: They offered to do whatever they could do and were going to start making phone calls.
"SHAYS: And what did you ask them to do?
"BROWN: Well, I'm being advised by counsel that I can't discuss with you my conversations with the president's chief of staff and the president.
"(UNKNOWN): Excuse me, Mr. Brown, you discussed it with The New York Times.
"BROWN: Yes.
"(UNKNOWN): So, I think at least what you shared with the New York Times, I think you can share with this committee.
"BROWN: I told them we needed help. . . .
"Rep. HENRY BONILLA (R-Texas): Mr. Brown, one of the problems was that the country did not perceive that the White House was focused on this. Whether they were or were not, the perception was that there was not a focus at the highest level.
"At what point do you think the White House became focused on the fact that a disaster was looming in Louisiana and along the Gulf Coast?
"BROWN: Oh, they were aware of that by Thursday or Friday, because Andy Card and I were communicating at that point about -- in fact, I remember saying to Andy at one point that this was going to be a bad one. They were focused about it. They knew it.
"BONILLA: Some of the images that America watched on television early in the week, the president was speaking on an unrelated matter in a different part of the country, and I think he was on television with some musician. So as this storm was looming, there was not, again, out there an understanding that there was a focus at the highest level on what needed to be done to save these people.
"And if, in fact, there was a failure at the local level, as the mayor of New Orleans or as the governor of Louisiana, that perhaps there could have been a message that came from the president directly to get out of town because there was a disaster on the horizon.
"In hindsight, would you have wanted that? Would you have thought that would have been helpful?
"BROWN: Well, that's precisely what I talked to the president about on Sunday, yes. In hindsight, I should have done it on Saturday. . . .
"Rep. THOMAS M. DAVIS III (R-Va.): Let me just ask you how many times during this did you talk to the White House?
"BROWN: Oh gosh, Mr. Chairman, I don't know.
"DAVIS: Ballpark.
"BROWN: I mean, 30 times. I mean, I don't know.
"DAVIS: How many times did you talk to the president, or was he on the line with the communication?
"BROWN: The president was on one of the conference calls, talked to the president personally numerous times, several times. A couple of phone calls from the president, a phone call to the president.
"DAVIS: Any trouble getting through when you had to -- "BROWN: No.
"DAVIS: OK.
"And what was the nature of the response from the White House when you were telling them you needed these things and getting them out; did they say they'd get them there or -- "BROWN: Yes. I mean, the White House is -- I think this committee really needs to understand that the White House was fully engaged. The White House was working behind the scenes to make certain that whatever deals -- "Rep. GENE TAYLOR (D-Miss.): They had to be behind the scenes, because I think we didn't see anything out front at that point."
Brown did criticize the cutting of FEMA's budget after it was merged into the Department of Homeland Security. But he said that wasn't Bush's fault.
"And that's not been, not because the president doesn't support FEMA," Brown said. "The president supports FEMA totally. I think the president's behind the organization 100 percent.
"But as we've gone through these changes with the focus on terrorism, as we've gone through the merger . . . resources have just been moved, used to other things, different priorities have come in place."
Good Question
White House Briefing reader Richard Lynn asks: "Can Mr. Brown tell me now which other state governments are dysfunctional and would, thus, not be able to receive help from the federal government? Are they Democratic or Republican governed states? Can he do a survey now, so we know whether or not we can expect help from the Feds in case of a future catastrophe?"
Torture Watch
The Washington Post today prints a letter from Army Capt. Ian Fishback, sent to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), in which Fishback expresses his frustration at the absence of clear standards governing how the military should treat detainees.
In the letter, The Post Editorial Board explains, Fishback "expresses his view, based on service in Iraq and Afghanistan, that this 'confusion contributed to a wide range of abuses including death threats, beatings, broken bones, murder, exposure to elements, extreme forced physical exertion, hostage-taking, stripping, sleep deprivation and degrading treatment.' "How can it be that an officer of the United States armed services, concerned about detainee mistreatment that he has personally witnessed, could struggle in vain for 17 months to learn the standards of humane treatment the military is applying? The answer to this question appears starkly in the written responses to questions from senators by Timothy E. Flanigan, President Bush's nominee to serve as deputy attorney general: The Bush administration has no standards for humane treatment of detainees. Capt. Fishback is looking for something that doesn't exist....
"Mr. Bush has promised that all detainees will be treated humanely. Yet, when asked how he would define humane treatment, Mr. Flanigan declared that he does 'not believe that the term "inhumane" treatment is susceptible to a succinct definition.' Did the White House provide any guidance as to its meaning? 'I am not aware of any guidance provided by the White House specifically related to the meaning of humane treatment.' "
Supreme Court Watch
Deb Riechmann writes for the Associated Press: "President Bush, nearing the end of his search for a successor to retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, has whittled his list to a handful of candidates and could announce his decision by week's end. . . .
"Often mentioned are federal appellate judges Alice Batchelder, J. Michael Luttig, Edith Jones, J. Harvie Wilkinson, Priscilla Owen, Samuel Alito, Karen Williams and Michael McConnell.
"Also said to be under consideration are corporate attorney Larry Thompson, White House counsel Harriet Miers, Michigan Supreme Court Justice Maura Corrigan and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. . . .
"Miers is leading the White House effort to help Bush choose a nominee to the Supreme Court, so naming her would follow a move Bush made in 2000 when he tapped the man leading his search committee for a running mate -- Dick Cheney."
National Guard Watch
Don Kaplan writes in the New York Post: "Dan Rather wants to reopen the investigation into President Bush and the National Guard story that resulted in the Memogate scandal and led to his early departure from the anchor desk.
"But his bosses at CBS have forbidden him to go back at it, he said. . . .
"Rather continues to insist that the story was correct and suggested in the interview that he and the network may have been set up by some outsider. . . .
" 'One supporting pillar of the story, albeit an important one, one supporting pillar was brought into question,' he said. 'To this day, no one has proven whether it was what it purported to be or not.' "
Laura Bush Makeover Watch
Anne E. Kornblut writes in the New York Times from Biloxi: "Mrs. Bush flew here on Tuesday for a cameo on 'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,' the blockbuster ABC show that usually does impromptu remodeling for disadvantaged homeowners but is now taking supplies to hurricane victims for segments to be shown later this year. . . .
"[W]ith her husband still struggling to regain his political footing many weeks after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, the decision to link her with reality TV had a whiff of the daring.
"It also suggested that despite an increased effort by President Bush to address the hurricane crisis - his visit to Texas on Tuesday was his seventh to the area since Hurricane Katrina hit, hers was her fifth - the White House was casting about for more creative ways to convey its concern and manage public opinion."
Late Night Humor
From Jon Stewart on Comedy Central's "Daily Show":
"In the search to make sense of the recent Gulf Coast tragedies, some have suggested that the hurricanes may have been a sign of God's displeasure, a manifestation of the fact that we're living in end times. I wasn't sure I agreed -- until yesterday, when I saw this:"
He then rolls tape of Bush saying: "We can all pitch in by using -- by being better conservers of energy."
Humor From Behind the Firewall
Columnist Maureen Dowd writes in the New York Times (subscription required) : "I can't wait to see what's next.
"Dick Cheney carpooling downtown with Brownie? Rummy Rollerblading down the bike path to the Pentagon? Condi huddling by a Watergate fireplace in a gray cardigan?
"Maybe now that our hydrocarbon president is the conservation president, he'll downgrade from Air Force One to a solar-powered Piper Cub as he continues to stalk the Gulf Coast towns and oil rigs like Banquo's ghost."
