Katrina - The (Previously) Missing Transcripts

More about the "Hurricane Tapes" from today's American Progress Report:

KATRINA -- TO DEFEND AGAINST TAPES, WHITE HOUSE RELEASES TRANSCRIPT IT PREVIOUSLY SAID 'DIDN'T EXIST': Responding to new video in which President Bush is warned about the likely severity of Hurricane Katrina, the White House "suddenly sent around a transcript that it previously said didn't exist, from a conference call on the following day." The transcript includes a second-hand account of Bush's activities from ex-FEMA director Michael Brown "describing the president as engaged, watching TV and asking questions." For months, the White House had said it couldn't turn over the transcript to congressional investigators, "with officials initially telling Capitol Hill that someone at FEMA or Homeland Security forgot to push the button on a tape recorder." On Wednesday morning, however, when it was apparently determined that making the transcript public would help politically, the White House "unexpectedly e-mailed the transcript to Newsweek...—initially without explaining that it was the missing transcript."