New Orleans Mayor Urges Evacuation

With Rita Approaching, Officials Say Up To 500 Buses Available

(CBS/AP) 
The White House said Mr. Bush had named Frances Fragos Townsend, his in-house homeland security adviser, to lead an administration investigation of "what went wrong and what went right" in the sluggish federal response to Katrina. The appointment of Townsend, a former federal prosecutor with a reputation as a tough adversary, is unlikely to satisfy Democrats on Capitol Hill who are demanding a fully independent investigation.

Mr. Bush said he was pleased that New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin suspended his plan to allow as many as a third of the city's residents to return. He said positive steps are being taken.

"What you're beginning to see is a revitalized economy," Mr. Bush said, standing before 110 trailers set up for Folgers employees who lost their homes. "Progress is being made."

Mr. Bush began the day in Gulfport, Miss., where he dropped in on the first meeting of Gov. Haley Barbour's Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal, applauding their "can-do spirit" and pledging to help clean up the devastated Gulf Coast. He flew along the coast over mile after mile of destroyed homes.

"There is no doubt in my mind that out of the rubble and out of the huge heaps of timber that used to be homes, a better Mississippi will emerge," Mr. Bush told the local government and business leaders gathered in an air-conditioned tent set up in a hurricane-damaged outlet shopping center.

The president told them he had heard their complaints about bureaucratic hurdles for trash removal, saying he was personally making calls to cut through red tape and people in the area will soon see results.

"There was a level of frustration, as there should have been," he said. "We'll get the debris removed."

Barbour told Mr. Bush that local officials need the federal government's help to rebuild the area's infrastructure and make Mississippi's hurricane zone "the most attractive place in America for private investment."

"I'm confident that we'll get the resources because y'all have been so generous and good to us. But we want you to know that we're going to try to help you know what to give us," Barbour said to laughter.

Jim Barksdale, chairman of Barbour's commission, told the president and other attendees that they only have themselves to blame if reconstruction isn't successful. "You folks are like the pig at a ham and egg breakfast," he said. "You are committed."

White House press secretary Scott McClellan acknowledged that some of Mississippi's more rural areas still are waiting for federal help that has been focused in New Orleans and other larger population centers.

Mr. Bush planned to return South Friday and Saturday to visit Alabama, Texas and Arkansas — neighboring states that have taken in large numbers of Katrina evacuees.

As Air Force One landed again on the Gulf Coast, Americans were watching. As CBS News correspondent Gloria Borger reports (video) , new polls coming out today show the president's poll numbers just dipping as low as they've been thus far in his time in the presidency. On The Early Show, Borger said the most important thing to this president has always been his leadership rating.