Katrina video is fueling criticism of Bush

WASHINGTON -- The White House, already on the defensive against bipartisan allegations about its handling of port security, the Iraq war, and Hurricane Katrina, yesterday sought to stem a new flow of criticism of President Bush's level of honesty and engagement on Katrina, with Democratic lawmakers accusing Bush of covering up the ''incompetence" of the hurricane response.

White House spokesman Trent Duffy said a recently released video of Bush, sitting at a Crawford, Texas, table and listening to administration officials brief him on the looming disaster in the Gulf states, shows a president ''focused on making sure that the federal assets were in place to help the people of New Orleans."

But Democrats, building on bipartisan irritation with an increasingly unpopular White House, called it more evidence of the administration's failure to protect the American people against natural disasters and national security threats. The Democratic National Committee yesterday sent out a mass e-mail of the video, saying that it ''directly contradicts Bush's attempt to excuse his administration's awful response to the worst natural disaster in American history."

The Senate minority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, said the video ''confirms what we've suspected all along: that this administration is doing everything it can" to avoid responsibility for the lackluster recovery effort. ''It's certain from all the records that we have that they have systematically misled the American people to hide the basic incompetence of the recovery and response," Reid said. ''And as a result of this, it's made America less safe, not more safe."

The White House's GOP allies dismissed the video as nothing new, saying that they gave congressional investigators a transcript of the tape last year, in which Bush is warned before the storm hit that New Orleans levee system could fail.

Capitol Hill Republicans also suggested that Democrats were making too much of the video, which the Associated Press obtained and released this week. But they acknowledge that it is damaging to Bush.

The president, who enjoyed support from loyal congressional Republicans during his first term, has been the target of growing criticism from his own party on the Hill recently. Some GOP lawmakers with tough reelection campaigns or presidential ambitions have been distancing themselves from the president, who registered a historically low approval rating of 34 percent in a CBS poll this week.

Meanwhile, committees in both chambers of Congress held hearings yesterday examining the policies that allowed a Middle Eastern state-owned company to operate US ports, an idea that has drawn furor from both Democrats and Republicans. Senator Richard Shelby, Republican of Alabama and chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, questioned whether foreign countries should be permitted to do such work. ''Everything in this country can't be for sale," he said.

Senator Trent Lott, Republican of Mississippi, said the president's political situation reminds him of a shrimp boat that sat in the water too long, acquired barnacles, and sank from the extra weight. ''You don't need barnacles, and this adds barnacles," Lott said of the Katrina video.

Further, he said, conservative Republicans in his state are very unhappy about the port deal. ''This isn't good for the president," Lott said.

Democrats hammered Bush on the port deal and the response to Katrina.

''We all know that the back room deal with Dubai that the Bush administration pushed through is an indication of the priorities of the administration that have made America less safe," said the House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California. ''It is a backroom deal that shines a bright light on the failure of the president to secure our ports."

Representative Bennie G. Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi, said the video exposes ''the truth about what the president knew and when he knew it," a phrase Democrats used during the Watergate era. ''Unfortunately, this is just the latest in a series of revelations about how this administration has failed to prepare for the threats facing the American people," Thompson said.

Republicans, hoping to hang on to their majorities, acknowledged that the party was taking a beating, but said the GOP can steady itself.

''An awful lot of politics is who gets the benefit of the doubt. The president still very much gets the benefit of the doubt among Republicans," said Whit Ayres, a GOP consultant.

Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, said the White House has had ''a difficult time," but said ''they can recover" to salvage the administration's agenda and avoid tainting GOP candidates.

''Have we got problems? Sure. But I'm not pessimistic," McCain said. ''Six months is a lifetime in politics."