With the Obama administration facing growing criticism and creeping Katrina comparisons for its initial reaction to the April 20 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and subsequent oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs today offered a lengthy post on the White House blog defending the administration’s response.

Gibbs says President Obama “immediately began actively monitoring the incident and consulting on the response.” The word “immediately” appears four other times in the post and “quickly” appears twice, along with “rapidly” and “early on” and “from the start.”