Katrina and Bush: Iraq All Over Again

Some really sick news from Dan Froomkin in the WAPO: Rove is in charge of the 100% politicised cleanup.

All you really need to know about the White House's post-Katrina strategy -- and Bush's carefully choreographed address on national television tonight -- is this little tidbit from the ninth paragraph of Elisabeth Bumiller and Richard W. Stevenson's story in the New York Times this morning:

"Republicans said Karl Rove, the White House deputy chief of staff and Mr. Bush's chief political adviser, was in charge of the reconstruction effort."

Rove's leadership role suggests quite strikingly that any and all White House decisions and pronouncements regarding the recovery from the storm are being made with their political consequences as the primary consideration. More specifically: With an eye toward increasing the likelihood of Republican political victories in the future, pursuing long-cherished conservative goals, and bolstering Bush's image.

The WAPO piece also reveals how Bush (or should I say, Rove) is belatedly trying to turn this catastrophe into a PR success. Start with the search for a new "Ground Zero" moment in today's televised speech:

"Rather than speak before a live audience, Bush planned to stand alone and broadcast his message directly into the camera from the evacuated city's historic Jackson Square, according to a White House official speaking on condition of anonymity since the site had not been announced.

"The square and its most famed landmark, the St. Louis Cathedral, were on high enough ground to avoid flooding but did not escape damage from Katrina's 145-mph winds. Two massive oak trees outside the 278-year-old cathedral came out by the roots, ripping out a 30-foot section of ornamental iron fence and snapping off the thumb and forefinger of the outstretched hand on a marble statue of Jesus."

Of such things are Karl Rove's sick dreams constructed.

Josh Marshall highlights a couple of other news articles which reveal the White House strategy on the New Orleans cleanup. From WAPO again:

The only way to regain public confidence after the stumbling early response to the disaster is to spend whatever it takes to rebuild the region and help Katrina's victims get back on their feet.

And from Mike Allen:

By late last week, Administration aides were describing a three-part comeback plan. The first: Spend freely, and worry about the tab and the consequences later. "Nothing can salve the wounds like money," said an official who helped develop the strategy.

Like Marshall says, that smacks of Iraq all over again, with Halliburton already poinsed to pull in all the taxpayer-funded profits. Fool me once...?

Speaking of Iraq, where violence continues to escalate and civil war is all but official (even if the media still aren't prepared to say that), Kos has this great pick of a man who knows a lot about how to cook something called a "fontainbleu"...
Yeah, that's Paul Bremer alright, straight from the WAPO cooking section. Do these people have no shame or guilt at all?

And speaking of pictures, here's one for the vaults. George W. Bush writing a note to Condi Rice at the UN Summit:



Reuters have confirmed the pic is for real though it's still being debated whether Bush wrote the note or is responding to it. Just the fact that Reuters dared publish such a photo shows how Bush's "political capital" has plummetted. The photographer who took it is fresh out of covering New Orleans, by the way, which could explain his motivation.

And speaking of motivation, it turns out the guy who told Cheney to go #$%* himself the other day is a doc who also has good reason to be pissed:

In the past two weeks, Dr. Ben Marble of Gulfport, Mississippi, lost his house, saw his wife give birth by flashlight and became an instant celebrity for telling Vice President Dick Cheney to go fuck himself.

"I tell you it was a good feeling at the time. It did feel really good. Wasn't quite as good as having sex or something, but it was good," Marble said of the Sept. 8 event, captured live on CNN.

Give it up for the little people who make a difference, or at least try to.