Thanks Joe!

Lieberman to Katrina victims: Drop dead, suckers!

Sen. Joe Lieberman,  the only Democrat to
endorse President Bush’s new plan for Iraq,
has quietly backed away from his pre-
election demands that the White House turn
over potentially embarrassing documents
relating to its handling of the Hurricane
Katrina disaster in New Orleans.

. . .

Last year, when he was running for re-
election in Connecticut, Lieberman was a
vocal critic of the administration’s handling
of Katrina. He was especially dismayed by
its failure to turn over key records that
could have shed light on internal White
House deliberations about the hurricane,
including those involving President Bush.

Asserting that there were “too many
important questions that cannot be
answered,” Lieberman and other committee
Democrats complained in a statement last
year that the panel “did not receive
information or documents showing what
actually was going on in the White House.”

Among the missing material: the record of a
videoconference in the White House
Situation Room in which former Federal
Emergency Management Agency chief
Michael Brown said he warned senior
officials about the dire situation in New
Orleans, but was greeted with “deafening
silence.” Also missing: records believed to
include messages and conversations
involving the president, Vice President Dick
Cheney and their top aides during the days
in late August and early September 2005
when the Katrina disaster was unfolding and
thousands of city residents were flocking to
overcrowded shelters and hanging onto
rooftops awaiting rescue.

But now that he chairs the homeland
panel—and is in a position to subpoena the
records—Lieberman has decided not to
pursue the material, according to Leslie
Phillips, the senator’s chief committee
spokeswoman. “The senator now intends to
focus his attention on the future security of
the American people and other matters and
does not expect to revisit the White House’s
role in Katrina,” she told NEWSWEEK.

Note to Newsweek: Joe Lieberman ain’t a Democrat.
He lost the primary, remember?