Katrina response: We need Giuliani

The Associated Press is reporting:

President Bush will tour the hurricane devastated Gulf Coast region on Friday and has asked his father, former President George H.W. Bush, and former President Clinton to lead a private fund-raising campaign for victims, the White House said Thursday.

Fine.

Now how about getting former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani involved?

Remember his leadership following 9/11?

Those daily, sometimes twice daily, news conferences? Giuliani's care and candor built trust and cooperation with the people. He reported what had been done each day and explained why other things weren't done. If asked something he didn't know, he said he's report back and did.

Giuliani did more then explain. He called New York and the rest of us to our best. Example: his press conference the night of 9/11. I can't recall his exact words, but they were very close to these: Let us act now so that this our darkest day leads on to our finest hour.

I hope President Bush will ask Giuliani to serve as the national spokesperson on Katrina recovery efforts.

Giuliani should be given a staff to funnel information to him and ask questions of people involved in recovery operations. The President should tell other government officials to treat a call from Giuliani as if it came from him. Giuliani should have direct access to him.

With information in hand, Giuliani can inform the public each day and take questions from the press.

Problems with what I'm proposing?

Yes, at least three, but they shouldn't prevent Giuliani's appointment.

One, the bureaucratic "don't tell" and "blame someone else" Giuliani's likely to encounter.

That's going to be there anyway. Can you think of a better person than Giuliani to cut through it and get information to the public?

Two, MSM news organizations will play up every complaint about recovery efforts from officials and agencies with noses out of joint because of something Giuliani said.

Sure, but most of MSM will by playing up any complaint they get from anyone in order to paint the bleakest possible picture of recovery efforts anyway. Look how most of them have reported Iraq.

With Giuliani responding to MSM, the public will be much better served than with someone like Scott McClellan responding. And so will the President.

Three, some Republican bigs thinking of a presidential '08 run won't like Giuliani getting a lot of national attention.

The only thing to do about that is for Bush to step forward and say, "Country before party."

We need Guiliani now. He's been there and done it.