The Bush administration is thrashing about for an excuse to escape responsibility for not upgrading the levees protecting New Orleans. This is not an easy task. But fortunately for them, they have all the resources of the federal government at their disposal, so they should be able to come up with something. Even so, use of the Department of Justice for this purpose seems a bit extreme.

Jerry Mitchell of the Mississippi Clarion-Ledger writes,

Federal officials appear to be seeking proof to blame the flood of New Orleans on environmental groups, documents show.

The Clarion-Ledger has obtained a copy of an internal e-mail the U.S. Department of Justice sent out this week to various U.S. attorneys' offices: "Has your district defended any cases on behalf of the (U.S.) Army Corps of Engineers against claims brought by environmental groups seeking to block or otherwise impede the Corps work on the levees protecting New Orleans? If so, please describe the case and the outcome of the litigation."

Cynthia Magnuson, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, said Thursday she couldn't comment "because it's an internal e-mail."
....

Federal officials say the e-mail was prompted by a congressional inquiry but wouldn't comment further.

Fishing for red herring

Whoever is behind the e-mail may have spotted the Sept. 8 issue of National Review Online that chastised the Sierra Club and other environmental groups for suing to halt the corps' 1996 plan to raise and fortify 303 miles of Mississippi River levees in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas.

The corps settled the litigation in 1997, agreeing to hold off on some work until an environmental impact could be completed. The National Review article concluded: "Whether this delay directly affected the levees that broke in New Orleans is difficult to ascertain."

The problem with that conclusion?

The levees that broke causing New Orleans to flood weren't Mississippi River levees. They were levees that protected the city from Lake Pontchartrain levees on the other side of the city.

The Democrats have taken note. A letter of enquiry from Rep. John Conyers to the Attorney General Gonzalez has been put online at Raw Story.