CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA (AP) -- Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich says President Barack Obama's handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has been a "total failure" that is akin to the
government's bungled response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
Speaking Wednesday before a Republican fundraiser in Cedar Rapids, Gingrich argued that Obama has taken less personal responsibility for the oil spill recovery than President George Bush took for the Katrina response.
Gingrich says the federal government shares the blame for the deep water spill because it doesn't allow drilling in shallow water near the shore where problems could be dealt with more easily.
Gingrich was in Iowa to raise money for state and local Republican groups. He planned stops in Cedar Rapids, Davenport and Des Moines.
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