Katrina hits, and Cheney immediately makes two calls on August 30th & August 31st to make sure that the electric company's highest priority is restoring power to the pumps for the pipelines supplying oil to the NorthEast.

And it came down to a decision between spending time restoring power to hospitals or restoring power to the pipelines.

[ Line foreman Matt ] Ready said the crew members did not learn they were restoring power to pipelines until after the job was done.

How did they feel about that?

"Is this on the record?" Ready asked. "Well, then, we are all glad we were able to help out."

Compton said he was happy to support the national effort. But he said it was a difficult decision to make because of the potential impact in the region had the plan not worked and the area's power restoration was set back days.

Now let us not quibble over whether this was an appropriate use of federal power as the hurricane was rolling through or whether this was the right thing to do.

Why did Cheney make the call instead of leaving this to FEMA?

The Office of the Vice-President didn't (doesn't?) trust FEMA to handle the hurricane response.

Maybe this was a national security issue?

Ten points to whichever house can tell me where the Vice President sits in the Chain of Command.

(Trick Question: What happens to the Chain of Command when the President is either on Vacation or in the middle of a Photo Op, say reading to children)?