Team Bush's Quick Response to the Disaster

No, no, no, not THAT disaster...we're talking about what REALLY matters to them: poll numbers.

Under the command of President Bush's two senior political advisers, the White House rolled out a plan this weekend to contain the political damage from the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina...

The effort is being directed by Mr. Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove, and his communications director, Dan Bartlett. It began late last week after Congressional Republicans called White House officials to register alarm about what they saw as a feeble response by Mr. Bush to the hurricane, according to Republican Congressional aides...

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.

Operation Shift the Blame is fully staffed and funded--my guess is that they've probably been adequately provisioned as well--plenty of food and water, a place to stay, and so on.

Of course, that doesn't mean they aren't prone to dumb mistakes--claiming Gov. Blanco either forgot or didn't fill out the right forms--which was a lie--or Chertoff managing to contradict himself in sucessive sentences, or coming across as such a dumb fuck that Ted Koppel apparently had to ask him what he was watching on television (missed that one--if I had to guess, I'd go with "The Three Stooges")...

The Times article also notes an administration defending itself with the "vacation excuse" (TalkingPointsMemo mentioned this)--but I get the feeling that will quickly be tossed aside: "I'm so sorry, but you know how hot it gets in Washington every August" won't exactly get a sympathetic nod from someone who may have spent the last week 1) in a sweltering attic, 2) on a roof, 3) the Dome, 4) the Convention Center, or 5) along I-10 at Causeway, etc. etc.

And I just saw Bobby Jindal, truly a cross between a hack and a clown, spew the third major administration spin point: all that red tape in the bureaucracy really hurt the private relief efforts. Next thing you know, he'll argue that the profit motive should be applied to who lives and dies. Asshole.

This afternoon on NPR Daniel Schoor, in comments, got a LOT closer to the truth when he noted that the recovery effort is pretty much...what you can expect when "amateurs" are put in charge. Duh.

And, as the Times notes in conclusion, this was quickly discerned by the administration. So, they put the A-Team in charge:

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. Neither man responded to requests for comment.

White House advisers said that Mr. Bush expressed alarm after his return to Washington from the Gulf Coast.

Because, after all, a crisis is a crisis...at least when it involves a POLITICAL disaster of epic proportions.