[Bush offered Mississippi as well as Louisiana a federal takeover of relief efforts.] I told him we didn't need it, ... that we were doing well.

8,000 Guardsmen from Mississippi and Louisiana who might have helped, might have been deployed in the relief efforts are, in fact, in Iraq and not in Mississippi and Louisiana.

I'm going to tell you, Mississippi got hit much harder than they did, but what happened in the aftermath ? it makes your stomach hurt to go miles and miles and miles and the houses are all under water up to the roof,

It came in on Mississippi like a ton of bricks. It's a terrible storm.

I have a record as governor. I have a record of cutting spending. And I talked yesterday not only about we ought to cut spending, I talked about how we've cut spending in Mississippi and how if you did the same things in the federal government, you would save tens of billions of dollars a year.

[Back in Isla Vista after about 10 days of helping with relief efforts in Louisiana, the Rev. Jon-Stephen Hedges apologizes for not easily recalling some specific details of his time there.] Things are a little raw right now, ... My nerves are close to the surface. Everything's jumbled together.