WashPost - Froomkin: "Who's in Charge? Karl Rove!"

[sabra]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2005/09/15/BL2005091501098.html



Who's in Charge? Karl Rove!

By Dan Froomkin

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.

That is Rove's hallmark.

Rove, Bush's long-time political adviser and the "architect" of Bush's ascendancy, was rewarded after the 2004 election with a position at the White House with overt policy responsibilities. But whereas in some previous White Houses, governance took precedence over campaigning once the election was safely over, Rove has shown no sign of ever putting policy goals above political ones. (See my Rove profile .)

[Seabiscuit]

1. Well, duh...

[librechik]

2. A Conservative's Sim City Fantasy about to strangle NO and the GULF

"Some new measures are already taking shape. In the past week, the Bush administration has suspended some union-friendly rules that require federal contractors pay prevailing wages, moved to ease tariffs on Canadian lumber, and allowed more foreign sugar imports to calm rising sugar prices. Just yesterday, it waived some affirmative-action rules for employers with federal contracts in the Gulf region.

"Now, Republicans are working on legislation that would limit victims' right to sue, offer vouchers for displaced school children, lift some environment restrictions on new refineries and create tax-advantaged enterprise zones to maximize private-sector participation in recovery and reconstruction."


Lianne Hart and Janet Hook write in the Los Angeles Times: "White House aides said President Bush's address to the nation tonight would call for reconstructing the Gulf Coast using conservative blueprints and private-sector initiatives. . . .

" 'Bush has a very well defined vision of what government should do and how it should do it,' said Michael Franc, a vice president of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research organization consulted by the White House. 'This is a moment to teach or explain to the American people how his values apply to this catastrophic situation.' "

[liberal N proud]

3. Excellent article - Much more than indicated by title.

Bathroom Break



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Editor and Publisher calls it "destined to become one of the most yakked about photos of the month, if not year."

It's a keeper, alright. The only question is whether it will become iconic.

This Reuters photo by Rick Wilking captures Bush scribbling a note to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during a session at the United Nations.

The message: "I think I may need a bathroom break? Is that possible?"

My question: Is it really possible that there are already more than 10,000 blog posts about this picture?

[Pirate Smile]

5. Right. There is a lot of info - a summary of many articles and this

"Politicians in Scotland today sympathised with the President's predicament, and said they too had been left short during lengthy - and often boring - meetings.

"Tory MSP Brian Monteith said: 'I've been telling people for years that George Bush is human and not some alien or automaton, but no-one would listen. I know how he feels, there are times in these big meetings when all eyes are on you and yet below your cheery smile you are bursting.'"



:D

[blm]

4. Rove's MO is to press BIG cash into a few black hands, pump it up as aid

in the black community for the cameras, and then exaggerate its impact through the next election with most of the media ignoring the TRUTH that most of the funds are going to the same old war and disaster profiteers.

[July]

6. So . . . Brown resigns because he's not qualified.

Rove gets involved because he's . . . qualified?

More proof Bush doesn't know how to hire the right people.

[cap]

7. reminds me of the looting of bagdad

and I think violence will resolve from the second raping of the folks down there.

[understandinglife]

8. Funny how the NYTimes and Froomkin think this is news - they are soooooooo

.... LAME. Who else would be 'in charge.'!!!


Peace.

[emulatorloo]

9. kick n/t