UPDATE

Governor Blanco did actually say this. CNN ran a segment about it on
Daybreak.
The Political Teen has the video clip.

The argument now lies back in the bureaucracy that surrounds this whole
nightmare. Under the National Response Plan, the Director of Homeland Security
or his designee has the power to also call for military as a ESF (Emergency
Support Function). Blanco asked for all available help as the situation was
deteriorating. When it was becoming obvious the National Guard level was not
getting to the needed levels she then asked for military troops to compliment
efforts.

Some of the blame in this does lie on Blanco, some lies on the White House
and some lies with Homeland Security. The formalities on Blanco’s end were not
covered verbatim, however the full capacity of authority that is granted
Homeland Security under the National Response Plan was not exercised. This
should send off further warning signals of the problems that still lie within
our new National Response Plan and how it interferes with other laws)

Newsmax is at it again. This time they have concocted some story that
Governor Blanco admits she should have called the military.

Kathleen Blanco: I Should
Have Called the Military

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s abrupt decision Wednesday night to take
responsibility for her state’s inadequate response to the Hurricane Katrina
disaster followed an inadvertent confession that was caught on camera where
Blanco admitted she blew it.

“I really should have called for the military,” Blanco said, while
chatting with her press secretary in between TV interviews. “I really should
have started that in the first call.”

Unbeknownst to Blanco, her bombshell acknowledgment was recorded on a
network satellite feed, and by Tuesday the clip was getting wide exposure in
Louisiana news broadcasts.

In the early days of the Katrina crisis, disaster management experts
repeatedly blamed the failure to send in the National Guard for the city’s
descent into chaos.

Most observers blamed the White House for the blunder – a misconception
that was thoroughly dispelled by the governor’s inadvertent confession.

Some say Blanco’s blooper was responsible for the abrupt change of tone
in her speech Wednesday night to the Louisiana legislature.

Where earlier she and her aides had openly blamed the Bush administration
for bungling Katrina rescue efforts, Blanco announced: “The buck stops here,
and as your governor, I take full responsibility.”

Just as surprising were Blanco’s words of praise for the White House: “I
want the people of Louisiana to know that we have a friend and a partner in
President George W. Bush. I thank you, Mr. President.”

As soon as I heard about this article, I quickly went to work trying to
validate it. Sadly I found only 1 other article talking about this. It is posted
on the

Men’s Daily News and even says that their source is NewsMax. I have searched
News Bank (the competitor to Lexus Nexus) and no articles have popped up with
this story. I also have searched all the local media sites in Louisiana and have
not found any mention of this (first clue that this is an apparent lie should be
the fact that Newsmax does not have the audio clip of it which by their own
account is being “widely” circulated”.

Now even if this is true and Blanco said this to her press secretary,
wouldn’t it be more of a rhetorical statement? She already called in the
National Guard so that is out of the question. Last I checked our constitution;
the Command in Chief of the United States Military is the President, not
Governor Blanco. I guess the rights attempts to spin this are getting out of
hand. They are trying every last ditch effort to divert the blame that is justly
due on this administration. Newsmax seems to have ignored the simple fact that a
Governor has no control over the United States military.