As national Democratic Party leaders such as Howard Dean and New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton heaped criticism on President Bush’s administration over the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, only a couple of North Carolina’s congressmen outwardly joined in.

The two who clearly did — Democratic Rep. David Price (4th District) and Rep. Brad Miller (13th District) — had sharp words for the president.

“I share the anger of many Americans at how shamefully inadequate our government’s response has been,” said Miller, who is serving his second term in Congress. “Tens of thousands of Americans are living outside the walls of civilization. They are without food, they are without water to drink, they are without medicine or medical care, they are without effective shelter, they are without the protection against violence that law provides.

“The failures that led to that are not the failures of the last four days, but of the last four years.”

Miller delivered his remarks on the House floor on Sept. 2, when a $10.5 billion emergency appropriations bill for the hurricane’s victims was passed. On the same day Price, in a statement, issued similar criticism.

“While our focus remains on helping those who so desperately need it,” he said, “we must also ask some very important questions about the inadequate overall planning for this disaster and the role the federal government has played in it.”

Price said he had raised concerns two years ago when the Federal Emergency Management Agency, previously a separate agency, was moved under the responsibility of the Department of Homeland Security. He said FEMA was “extremely effective and fast-acting” in response to Hurricane Floyd in North Carolina in 1999, and that he did not want “this nimble agency” to get bogged down in bureaucracy under Homeland Security.

On Friday FEMA director Michael Brown was removed from the oversight of the Katrina recovery, and sent back to Washington.

Meanwhile, The Washington Times reported Friday that both Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin — both Democrats — “followed virtually no aspect of [their] own emergency management plan” in the hurricane disaster. The newspaper said the governor alone has the power to order an evacuation, which “Blanco has yet to do.” The Times also reported that Louisiana officials would not let a “state-of-the-art mobile hospital,” designed for disaster response, to deploy to New Orleans. It remained in Mississippi.

During a cabinet meeting Tuesday, President Bush told reporters his goal was to try to get help for the victims.

“I think one of the things that people want us to do here is to play a blame game,” he said. “We’ve got to solve problems. We’re problem-solvers. There will be ample time for people to figure out what went right and what went wrong.”

That wasn’t good enough for Rep. Miller, however.

“The President’s press secretary was asked earlier this week about our government’s response to the hurricane and he said, ‘Now is not the time for finger-pointing,'” Miller said in his speech on the House floor. “They say now is the time to grieve for the victims of the hurricane.”

He added that several other Republican congressmen made similar statements in recent days.

“But…there has to come a time for accountability,” Miller continued. “If there is not accountability for the stunning failures that we have seen in our government’s response to this hurricane, we will fail again and again.

“I know that this administration thinks that accountability is an ephemeral thing. If there is an attempt at accountability too soon, it’s finger pointing. If there is an attempt at accountability too late, then it’s something you should get over. There is just a moment for accountability.

“Mr. Speaker, tell me when that moment will be. Tell me precisely when the moment will come for accountability for the failures of our response, for the failures of our planning that have led to the devastation and the hardships that we are seeing now.

“And Mr. Speaker, tell me where the line forms to ask hard questions.”

Rep. Mel Watt, a Democrat who represents North Carolina’s 12th District and leads the Congressional Black Caucus, was more restrained in his comments. Some minority leaders argued that the slow response to help was due to lack of concern for poor blacks, but Watt disagreed.

“The truth of the matter is that poor white people and poor black people were unable, didn’t have the resources to respond,” Watt said in an interview with WSOC-TV in Charlotte. “Because disproportionately poor people are black, it appears to be having a disproportionate impact on African Americans.

“It really doesn’t benefit us to talk about what should have happened yesterday or the day before that. What we really need to do is focus on what needs to be happening now.”

Paul Chesser is associate editor of Carolina Journal. Contact him at [email protected].