The Louisiana ground hasn't begun to dry, but the MSM (in the form of Knight Ridder outlets) have lost no time in launching the latest spin -- Katrina Kontrast:

Rita plans highlight Katrina failures

Federal response this time brings praise, questions

September 26, 2005

BY JONATHAN S. LANDAY, SETH BORENSTEIN and ALISON YOUNG
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS

WASHINGTON -- The speed with which the federal government marshaled significant military and other resources to evacuate, rescue and care for victims of Hurricane Rita raises new questions about why Washington was so slow to respond to Hurricane Katrina less than four weeks earlier.

The Bush administration says it's researching whether the federal government needs to have greater authority to respond to disasters -- and whether the military should be in charge.

The response to Rita, however, suggests the government had plenty of authority to respond to Katrina and that what was lacking was an understanding of when to use that authority.

"The atmosphere here is very, very different than it was in the days following Katrina," said John Pine, Louisiana State University Disaster Science and Management director. Pine was in Louisiana's emergency operations center in Baton Rouge on Sunday and said that nearly as many federal officials were present as those from state and local agencies.

A day after Katrina, "it was all on the shoulders of state and locals," Pine said. "There was a lot more staging of a lot more operations in place for the second storm. ... I think you see a huge difference."

I'm going to be really daring and stick my neck out here.

I think I might have an answer to the profound new question of why "nearly as many federal officials were present" this time around, and why the response was faster.

Um, because they were already there?

Yes, the Katrina recovery effort was in full swing, and it was a gigantic operation. The channels of command, control and communication were all in place, Governor Blanco was quite used to working with all the appropriate military and government officials. What this meant is that when another hurricane hit in the same place, affecting mostly the same state, the people who had "significant military and other resources to evacuate, rescue and care for victims" were right there, and ready to deal with it.

It's so obvious that help already on hand is faster than help that has to be summoned that I really don't see where this Rita versus Katrina argument is headed. I hope they're not promoting the idea that the federal government should have a huge military presence in every state, ready and willing to take over all state functions.

Aren't there a few constitutional concerns? Does anyone remember that archaic "standing armies" fears-of-King-George stuff? (Such favorite nostalgic one-liners as "He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislatures"? and "he has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power"?)

Or has Katrina abolished such concerns?