Nancy Pelosi nearly has a "Howard Dean moment"

During a live CNN interview with Kyra Phillips on "Live from..." Sen. Nancy Pelosi comes close to her own version of the Howard Dean scream when Kyra Phillips dared ask her tough questions on the fairness of blaming only the federal response, specifically FEMA, instead of the usual softball interview that she was most likely expecting. At first Phillips was questioning her on Scott McClellan's statements today questioning her account of a meeting she had with President Bush where she claims she insisted on Michael Brown being removed as head of FEMA and McClellan's claim that that was not discussed at all, and then it got interesting...

PHILLIPS: But if you, if we go back, I mean, we can go back year after year after year, and we can talk about FEMA and what went wrong within FEMA and should FEMA be under the Department of Homeland Security.

But if we want to be historical here, and we want to go back in time, I mean, we can go back to "The Times Picayune" and the investigation that it -- when it -- when reporters revealed that time after time, monies were asked for from all types of various politicians, of the politicians you worked side by side with, laws that you yourself vote on, and monies that should have gone to Louisiana to take care of the problems with regard to the flood control systems.

And I think it's unfair that FEMA is just singled out. There are so many people responsible for what has happened in the state of Louisiana.

PELOSI: Well, that's true. That is true. And I'm sorry that you think it's unfair. But I don't. I think it's unfair to the people who lost their family members, their lives, their livelihoods, their homes, their opportunity.

And FEMA has done a poor job. It had no chance. It was (INAUDIBLE)...

PHILLIPS: But what about all those warnings...

PELOSI: ... may I please respond?

PHILLIPS: What about all the warnings from the Army Corps of Engineers...

PELOSI: But the Army Corps of Engineers...

PHILLIPS: ... years ago, saying there's a problem with these levees, there's a problem with this city.

PELOSI: Kyra, Kyra, Kyra...

PHILLIPS: It's Kyra. It's Kyra.

PELOSI: ... if you want to make a case for the White House, you should go on their payroll. But the (INAUDIBLE)...

PHILLIPS: I'm not making a case for the White House, by all means, believe me.

PELOSI: ... that the White House has cut this year 72 percent of the request from Louisiana for flooding money. The White House has cut the Army Corps of Engineers by a large percentage in this last fiscal year.

But the point is not to argue about that. The point is, where do we go from here to help these people? The last thing the American people need is bickering right now over this, except to make their rescue safer, to a return to normalcy for them. And (INAUDIBLE)...

It would have been nice if Krya Phillips could have gotten in a few more shots, like the Bush Administration has actually provided Lousianna with more funding than the Clinton Administration did. Or that Lousianna Senator Mary Landreau had a hand in redirecting much of the money designated for levee upgrades to other less important projects. See this article from Michael Grunwald in yesterday's Washington Post.

For example, after a $194 million deepening project for the Port of Iberia flunked a Corps cost-benefit analysis, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) tucked language into an emergency Iraq spending bill ordering the agency to redo its calculations. The Corps also spends tens of millions of dollars a year dredging little-used waterways such as the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, the Atchafalaya River and the Red River -- now known as the J. Bennett Johnston Waterway, in honor of the project's congressional godfather -- for barge traffic that is less than forecast.

But she was probably panicking that she wouldn't get anymore Democrats to interview for fear that they would have to answer some actual relevant questions.