No matter how backward its policy, how laggardly its response time or bumbling, or begrudging, its execution might be, the Bush administration does strive mightily to be on top of one thing.
In President George W. Bush’s Washington, getting and keeping the political upper hand trumps all other considerations, always.
One of the most destructive U.S. natural disasters ever, compounded by human folly, has left a great city ruined. Beyond New Orleans, ruin is spead across the Gulf Coast counties of three states. Thousands, maybe tens of thousands, have lost their lives. Hundreds of thousands are without their worldly possessions, their homes, businesses, vehicles, jobs, even their pets.
This is a time for all Americans to come together, to work together, to share in providing all the help and hope we can come up with.
But as Bush and other top officials fan out across the damaged region in a somewhat belated display of personal concern and leadership presence, White House political masterminds are in high gear doing the work this administration deems most essential, always:
In many ways, the unfolding public relations campaign reflects the style Mr. Rove has brought to the political campaigns he has run for Mr. Bush. For example, administration officials who went on television on Sunday were instructed to avoid getting drawn into exchanges about the problems of the past week, and to turn the discussion to what the government is doing now.“We will have time to go back and do an after-action report, but the time right now is to look at what the enormous tasks ahead are,” Michael Chertoff, the secretary of Homeland Security, said on “Meet the Press” on NBC.
One Republican with knowledge of the effort said that Mr. Rove had told administration officials not to respond to Democratic attacks on Mr. Bush’s handling of the hurricane in the belief that the president was in a weak moment and that the administration should not appear to be seen now as being blatantly political. As with others in the party, this Republican would discuss the deliberations only on condition of anonymity because of keen White House sensitivity about how the administration and its strategy would be perceived.
In a reflection of what has long been a hallmark of Mr. Rove’s tough political style, the administration is also working to shift the blame away from the White House and toward officials of New Orleans and Louisiana who, as it happens, are Democrats.
“The way that emergency operations act under the law is the responsibility and the power, the authority, to order an evacuation rests with state and local officials,” Mr. Chertoff said in his television interview. “The federal government comes in and supports those officials.”
That line of argument was echoed throughout the day, in harsher language, by Republicans reflecting the White House line.
. . . These officials said that Mr. Bush and his political aides rapidly changed course in what they acknowledged was a belated realization of the situation’s political ramifications. As is common when this White House confronts a serious problem, management was quickly taken over by Mr. Rove and a group of associates including Mr. Bartlett.
So, faced with a crisis, Bush turns to his political hacks to take charge. And this is their game plan:
- Blow past questions about all that’s gone wrong, talking instead about how bad the problem is and what’s to be done going forward.
- Don’t respond to Democrats’ criticisms and questions.
- shift all blame onto state and local officials.
This is in stark contrast to President Harry S. Truman’s “The buck stops here.” It’s day/night different from the way President John F. Kennedy took responsibility following the Bay of Pigs debacle.
No, we’re not suggesting Bush should utter mea culpas for the hurricane or even shoulder all the blame for breaks in the canal walls and levees that really sealed New Orleans’ fate. But he should be forthcoming about, and take appropriate remedial action concerning, the molasses-slow pace of federal response and often nonsensical FEMA decision making.
At The Moderate Voice blog, Joe Gandelman has an excellent post on this. He’s largely nonpartisan and bilaterally skeptical. But on this, he pulls no punches:
Just as some have predicted, the New York Times reports that White House political guru Karl Rove is now taking over to orchestrate White House response to Hurricane Katrina, offset the political damage — and go on the offensive.This means Americans will start seeing and hearing the new line in images, comments from leading GOPers and, most prominently, in arguments made by lockstep GOP establishment radio and cable talk show hosts. It’s worth looking at this Times piece in some detail so outraged independents, Democrats and non-lockstep Republicans know what to expect:
. . .
” One senior White House official said that Mr. Bush appeared at a senior staff meeting in the Situation Room on Friday and called the results on the ground “unacceptable.”Frankly, at this point, given the political nature of all of the above, the “senior White House official” the Times is quoting could be Rove. And the credibility of this administration has fallen so low with this writer (and many other independents voters) that he can’t take it at face value.
If you boil it down, it seems to be this: responsibility is something Democrats must take, common citizens must take and parents tell kids they must take.
Bush take responsibility? No, but as always, he’ll put his time and energy into manufacturing as much political advantage as he can get.
And … you were expecting?