McCain Lies About His Stance On Katrina

Not surprising:

During his press conference today in Baton Rouge, John McCain declared in strong terms that he's voted for every investigation of Hurricane Katrina.

The only problem, as the DNC has been pointing out to reporters, is he voted twice against Democratic proposals to investigate the levee failures.

After a local reporter at his Baton Rouge press conference asked why he voted against forming a commission to investigate the levee failures in New Orleans, McCain insisted that he supported every investigation -- and added that he was "not familiar" with what the reporter was talking about.

McCain voted against establishing a commission to investigate the levee failures, in a September 2005 party-line vote in which all Republicans voted against the Democratic proposal. He then repeated that party-line GOP vote against a similar Dem proposal in February 2006.

The McCain campaign issued a lame response, saying that McCain wasn't interested in these Congressional investigations because the Department of Homeland Security was already investigating.

This seems to compound the error. First McCain lies about his record on the Katrina investigations. Then he claims that he had full confidence in the sham after-report compiled by the same people who screwed up in the first place.

McCain is trying to burnish his anti-Bush cred by pounding the administration on Katrina. But the facts are not in his favor. On the day Katrina hit landfall, McCain was celebrating his 100th birthday with George W. Bush in Arizona. When Democrats proposed an independent investigation into what happened, McCain voted against it. He also voted against Katrina relief efforts. For him to now call himself a champion of Katrina victims is simply ridiculous.