About-face

Washington Times Inside Politics September 26th, 2005

A New Orleans area politician who a few weeks ago went on national television to tearfully blame the federal government for the death of an elderly woman in a nursing home grudgingly conceded yesterday that his story was untrue.

Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard, in a return appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," appeared surprised when host Tim Russert asked him to set the record straight. Mr. Broussard, in his earlier appearance, had accused the federal government of near-criminal negligence in the death of the 92-year-old mother of the parish's emergency services director.

Mr. Broussard's account of how the woman had drowned four days after the hurricane while awaiting rescue from the federal government has been refuted by the woman's son, Thomas Rodrigue, who said his last contact with her was on a Monday -- the day of the hurricane -- and not the following Thursday or Friday, as Mr. Broussard had suggested.

She apparently died that Monday, Aug. 29, with more than 30 others in the nursing home, at a time when responsibility for an evacuation or subsequent rescue clearly belonged to state and local officials.

Mr. Broussard said yesterday that he had been misinformed, but then lashed out at those who had questioned his story. "What kind of sick mind, what kind of black-hearted people want to nitpick a man's mother's death?" he said.

No, you slimy, weaseling bastard, that is not the real question, the real question is:

What kind of sick mind, what kind of black-hearted people used a man's mother's death for political gain on a broadcast seen across the Nation and around the World?

--WP