Frankly, the "Democratic leadership" is so tied in with these ultra-Left groups that I wonder if there was a lot of back-room pressure put on LA's Governor and N.O.'s Mayor to delay their responses to the crisis so that there would be "public outcry" ... after all, the Federal govt. can't move in until specifically requested by the State, and the Bush administration was pleading with them to let the emergency situations get coordinated from the time the storm hit, but there was all sorts of local foot-dragging which prevented FEMA from getting involved (which in turn prevented the Military from getting involved) until things were getting ugly on the ground. Given the goons that are the big players in the Democratic party, I wouldn't be surprised to find that the delays were intentional to make the situation look as bad as possible and then blame Bush (handily playing the "race card", even though many white suburban areas were as devestated as the rest)!
I will never understand the Leftist mentality ... assuming it's "honest" ... I can certainly understand the likes of Dean and Hitlery callously pressuring the Democratic Governor of Louisiana to create a situation that they would then use to attack Bush ... but I prefer to think of my Left-leaning friends as deluded rather than evil!