Q: How were you feeling Friday morning?
WS: The monster is rearing its ugly head again. The cacophony of
contradictory opinions was becoming stronger, more vocal, and worrying people a
great deal more. And by Friday, we realized that we need more expertise than
we had access to even then. Washington had to step up with people who really
knew what was goin' on, not people who thought they knew what was going on,
people who really knew. And furthermore, there had to be, and equally
important, as I have said all along and in discussing this with people, that
the psychology of this crisis was as important as the physical reality of it.
Evenly important, we needed the nexus voice from the federal government that
was at least equal to the governor's voice. The governor had a great deal of
credibility by this time, and, rightfully so. But Washington was speculating
and congressmen were speculating, senators were speculating, pundits of all
sorts and people from the administration were speculating based on information
which was not immediate and they didn't know. And so, the governor's voice was
not being met with a compatible voice of authority, of a central intelligence
in Washington. By the time Friday came, we knew we just had to have it.
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