McCain Slams Federal Response to Katrina

McCain Tells News Orleans Residents Federal Response to '05 Hurricane Was Disgraceful Under a sweltering spring sun, Sen John McCain, R-Ariz., strolled a desolate thoroughfare today in this city's still-devastated Ninth Ward. His guides were the state's new governor, Republican Bobby Jindal, often named as a possible running mate, and several African-American community leaders.

Photographers, camera people and reporters packed onto two flatbed National Guard trucks that led the way were there to bear witness to spectacle: a Republican running for president in an overwhelmingly Democratic, black neighborhood.

After walking four blocks, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee stood outside a church and proceeded to criticize President Bush, a fellow Republican, for the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.

"Never again will a disaster of this nature be handled in the terrible and disgraceful way it was handled," McCain said. "It will never, ever happen again."