The flooding in New Orleans makes an enormous difference in how quickly rescue efforts can be carried out. And frankly, the part of the article you quote says only that in Florida, "federal agencies poured in billions of dollars." It doesn't say anything about how many people had to be physically rescued (estimates are up to 100,000 in N.O. alone, or how long it took for the aid to arrive. "A tour-de-force rescue" of what? People trapped in a swamp, or the Florida economy?

AS for the Governor's statement, she seems says that the federal response "is not happening as fast as we had hoped." Nobody doubts this is true. What she did not say (and as a successful politician would have said if she meant to) is "The federal response is disgraceful and inadequate, a national scandal. FEMA is a fraud. If Louisiana were as important as Florida to George Bush's America, this situation would be well in hand."

If the Governor of Louisiana doesn't seem to think this, why should we?

Also, on the vanishingly small possibility that the "evil politician" theory is correct, we'll be getting far more evidence of it in days to come. No Democrat, and few Republicans, would let real evidence of such absolutely self-serving criminality go unnoticed. Why jump to such a conclusion now, when everyone's attention should be on saving lives?