President Bush getting 'regular updates' on Gustav

Not only is President Bush keeping atop the reports of Tropical Storm Gustav, but the White House press office is keeping atop efforts to report that he is keeping atop the reports.

In other words, the president's staff wants us to know he's paying attention.

Can you say "Katrina"?

With the new storm following a path much like that of the 2005 hurricane, and forecasters predicting that it could come ashore Tuesday morning as a Category 3 hurricane (with winds in the 113-mph-to-130-mph range), the president has already dispatched top officials to the Gulf Coast to monitor preparations.

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said this morning that Bush was getting "regular updates" about Gustav.

She said he was briefed Wednesday afternoon and again this morning by senior staff members.

"He's involved, engaged and getting briefings and working to make sure that the federal assistance is there," the spokeswoman said, adding: "Obviously, state and local authorities have responsibilities."

The efforts to demonstrate Bush's involvement, of course, come against the backdrop of what the president has acknowledged was an insufficient federal response to the devastation that Katrina wrought as it swept across Louisiana and Mississippi.

This afternoon, one of Perino's deputies, Scott Stanzel, dispatched an e-mail update.

He said Bush had spoken with Michael Chertoff, the secretary of Homeland Security, and David Paulison, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and "received an update about the ongoing efforts to prepare for the potential landfall of Tropical Storm Gustav."

Stanzel said Bush spoke with them about deploying personnel and prepositioning supplies, and about federal coordination with state and local authorities.

Still up in the air: whether the storm -- or, more specifically, the need to monitor the preparations for the storm and the response to its assault -- will force Bush to alter his plan to address the Republican National Convention on Monday night in St. Paul, Minn.

"Too premature to say," Perino said when asked whether the president's aides were tracking the storm with an eye toward changing his schedule.

Unspoken: the notion that it might be unseemly, let alone politically unwise, for Bush to be rousing the party faithful in St. Paul -- while network cameras were showing Gulf Coast residents again struggling against another horrific storm.

-- James Gerstenzang

Photo: Associated Press

Comments

[Cliff in NH]

The hurricane may actually help McCain. It provides a great excuse for Bush to skip the convention. His speech there would just remind people that this is the party of the worst president ever.