OK --- Caught this on Americablog (courtesy of Dan Froomkin at WaPo). Apparently
Karl Rove is now in charge of the reconstruction effort following Katrina!
The speculation from Froomkin is that this is a political move as a combo CYA and an effort to dilute the Dem base in NOLA (pretty much the only blue part of a pretty red state). This story needs to be spread to the MSM, if only to ask the essential question "What experience does Karl Rove have in disaster recovery?"
The nice thing about this question is the fact that there are two good answers:
- The straight answer is "None". Rove has been a political hack all his life and has no experience with emergency management.
- The snark answer is "Just look at GWB's career and his re-election". Of course this will be the more fun answer for the likes of Bill Maher and Jon Stewart.
This again raises questions about the judgement and political "tone deafness" of the whole administration. Did nobody in the WH think that, in the aftermath of Katrina and Brown/FEMA fiascoes, naming Rove to lead the reconstruction wasn't bound to piss off a large percentage of the allready PO'd as well as make the few that still think Bush may be doing OK start asking "What the hell is he thinking?"
Time will tell......
Update [2005-9-15 16:6:45 by synuclein]:
I keep thinking about this and am realizing that (in connection with some of the "amateur" psychoanalysis of GWB that has been going on around this site and the progressive blogosphere) Bush is exhibiting some sort of pathology. I just wonder if some of these decisions aren't some sort of a "cry for help". As Bill Maher expressed the other night, this guy hasn't succeeded at anything and the situation for him has been getting pretty dire. Maybe he's at the end of his rope and is "fishing" for an out. By antagonizing an ever increasing percentage of the electorate, maybe he's hoping for an excuse to resign. At this point he has no "legacy", except -- possibly -- as the leader of one of the most corrupt and inept (scary combination) administrations in history (clearly -- based on polling -- worse than any in modern history).
What happens next is anyones' guess, but I've gotta say, I'm getting increasingly jumpy about the prospects for the country if he doesn't stabilize soon...