It's a lose lose situation. The mayor has to ask the governor for help, the governor has to ask for federal intervention. I think the problem was the governor not asking for federal intervention because she didn't want the impression of "Federal Martial Law" in LA. Now that there IS federal intervention, there are too many cooks in the kitchen and no clear idea who is in charge, so things are really slow. This whole procedure has a lot of kinks, but you have to keep in mind that the folks they're out rescuing now defied the mayor's manditory evacuation, now that they're out of food, out of water and have been sitting in their own stink for a week, they all want help to get out. I'm sorry but I just can't have too much sympathy and I really don't think it's appropriate to put all of the blame on Bush.
and for the record... the complete quote:
""What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality," she said.
"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this -- this is working very well for them.""