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September 15, 2005
Rove's Running the Reconstruction
As the nation prepares for President Bush's "day late and dollar short" speech tonight from New Orleans (most folks around here will probably be watching the Astros/Marlins game instead), plans for the Gulf Coast reconstruction effort are beginning to take shape.
There is one detail that should give everyone pause: Karl Rove is in charge of the reconstruction. You've gotta give the White House points for consistency.
Never mind that Michael Brown, the recently departed head of FEMA, was widely criticized for being ineffective in a job for which he had no qualifications. Never mind that this White House has consistently replaced career professionals across departments with unqualified political appointees.
Reality has never slowed these guys down, so why should it now? Mr. Rove, who is a brilliant political tactician, doesn't even have a college degree ("heckuva job Brownie" is at least an attorney), much less any significant public policy experience or one iota of disaster management background. Given the total incompetence displayed by government to date, putting Rove in charge sounds perfect, right?
Mr. Rove's assignment is very telling indeed. For while he has absolutely no background to qualify him for the immense task of actually getting recovery going on the central Gulf Coast, as mentioned, he does have skills.
Spinning, blaming and framing will be executed with ruthless efficiency and effectiveness in the Karl Rove Katrina clean-up and rebuilding effort. Soaring, patriotic images of the president "working hard" will abound. Unpleasantness, whether painful facts, angry survivors, or scenes of death and destruction will be swept under the rug. Complaining Democrats will be effortlessly pilloried and marginalized -- they're so predictable and lay down so willingly anyway. Make no mistake, Mr. Rove's job is the political reconstruction of George W. Bush -- New Orleans is gravy.
With Mr. Rove in charge, the White House will censor the body bags, "investigate" itself, and throw billions in hush money at New Orleans. A lovely little whitewash, all in the name of protecting what's really important -- eliminating the estate tax, privatizing Social Security, and for God's sake, keeping those gays from getting married.
Reality? Not a problem. The press? You're kidding, right? Democrats? OK, you're definitely kidding.
Maybe, maybe not.
Posted by houtopia at September 15, 2005 02:04 PM