MR. TIM RUSSERT: Our issues this Sunday: nearly six months after Hurricane Katrina, the head of Homeland Security is under intense fire in the U.S. Senate.

(Videotape, February 15, 2006)

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R, ME): The response of DHS must be judged a failure.

SEN. JOE LIEBERMAN (D, CT): You had the capability. It wasn’t used well.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT: And also in the House, where a Republican investigation concludes there was a failure of initiative and a failure of leadership at every level of government. Can he restore confidence in his leadership? With us, the Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff.

Then, four days after he accidentally shoots his hunting partner, Vice President Cheney breaks his silence.

(Videotape, February 15, 2006)

VICE PRES. DICK CHENEY: I’m the guy who pulled the trigger that fired the round that hit Harry. It was, I’d have to say, one of the worst days of my life.

(End videotape)

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MR. RUSSERT: Did the vice president handle this situation properly? And was the media coverage appropriate? With us: New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, Wall Street Journal editorial page editor Paul Gigot, NBC News chief White House correspondent David Gregory, and the former counselor to Mr. Cheney, Mary Matalin. Dowd, Gigot, Gregory and Matalin square off.

But first, August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastates the Gulf region. Hundreds of thousands are homeless, more than a thousand die. The secretary of Homeland Security was in charge of the federal response to that disaster, and he joins us this morning for the first time since that hurricane week.

Welcome, Secretary Michael Chertoff.

SEC’Y MICHAEL CHERTOFF: Good to be here, Tim.

MR. RUSSERT: What a week for you, hearings before the Senate and reports from House Republicans. The New Orleans Times-Picayune, the local paper down there, editorialized this: “Katrina was a disaster that had long been feared. The House report, then, is on target when it says that September 11 was a failure of imagination, but Katrina was a failure of initiative and leadership. Those who are responsible should be held accountable. Firing FEMA’s Michael Brown was a start. But FEMA was under the Department of Homeland Security—Michael Chertoff’s department. The House report concludes that he fulfilled his responsibilities ‘late, ineffectively, or not at all.’ If that’s not grounds for dismissal, what is?” Have you ever considered stepping down?

SEC’Y CHERTOFF: Well, you know, like everybody else who is serving in the Cabinet, I serve at the pleasure of the president. And when I took the job, I knew that we had a lot of work to do to mature the department, and I was aware of the fact that something might happen, whether it was a manmade or a terrorist event, before we had a chance to finish the building. So I can’t say I had my eyes closed about the challenge in the job. I continue to serve at the pleasure of the president. I think my responsibility is to try to fix the department. And as long as the president wants me to do that, I’m going to continue to stay on the job.

MR. RUSSERT: You haven’t had any conversations with his staff about moving on?

SEC’Y CHERTOFF: Well, you know, I don’t normally talk about conversations with the president or the senior staff. But the president knows that I am there as long as he wants and needs me, and I will work 24/7 to make this department as good as it can be.

MR. RUSSERT: Senate Joe Lieberman of Connecticut at the hearing said this: “Our conclusion is that the Department of Homeland Security had a responsibility to lead the preparation and response to Hurricane Katrina, and let us down. We’ve invested billions of dollars in the department. It had the capabilities to prepare for and respond to Katrina, and it didn’t use them. As a result, a lot of people suffered and, unfortunately, a lot of people died.” Does that haunt you?

SEC’Y CHERTOFF: It does haunt me because what—it’s not the criticism. Because, obviously, some of the criticism is obviously helpful. Some of it I don’t agree with. But what does stick with me is the image of people who unnecessarily suffered because of delays in getting them evacuated. There was some tremendous success stories. I actually was very worried the first couple of days about rescues. I was worried, how were you going to get thousands and tens of thousands of people who are trapped in attics out of those attics? And there the Coast Guard and other parts of the department performed magnificently. But in the evacuation, I think we really fell short. And that’s certainly something which I will always carry with me and something which I’m determined to fix, particularly as we come into hurricane season this year, which is just a hundred days away.

MR. RUSSERT: When you were last on, a few days after the hurricane began, you said that the levees were breached early Tuesday morning. We now learn that in fact it was around Monday morning at 8:30 that people were first notified the levees had breached. Why were you out of the loop?

CONTINUED

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