Bush to unfurl 'plan-esque' New Orleans strategy?
Mon Jan 30, 2006 at 06:07:50 PM PDT
...we look forward to the time when each state develops its recovery plan...it's important for New Orleans and the state of Louisiana to work together to develop a state recovery plan...folks in Congress will want to spend money based upon a specific strategy. In other words, we've got to get comfortable with how to proceed. The plan for Louisiana hasn't come forward yet.
The plan for Louisiana hasn't come forward yet, because we're doing all we can to suppress it, I guess he meant to say. The question is, why?
The WaPo editorial board apparently believes the goal is to leave N.O. hanging with pleasant words and a woefully inadequate $6bn in block grants, modeled on the similar amount tendered to far fewer people with less widespread damage in Mississippi.
To my suspicious eyes, though, this about-face--coming as it does on the eve of the SOTU--has another more cynical interpretation, which runs like this:
The WH had counted on intractable partisanship within local and state circles to create a log-jam which the Bush Administration could then ostentatiously ride in, criticize, and pretend to overcome...say, during tomorrow's SOTU, for which expectations have already been lowered.
I leave it to you to guess at the likely actual substance or utility of any such plan, but the potential for image-redeeming stage-craft on this issue seems large.
But unfortunately for Bush, the Louisiana Rs and Ds who actually had to live through Katrina and its tragic aftermath were in a mood to get something meaningful done, not play into Rovian intrigue. Their actual compromise of substance threatened to undermine and pre-empt the planned theater of "Bush to the rescue!!!"
So the administration had to shut Rep. Baker down--screw debating the merits, or even acknowledging its existence when directly asked.
There is, I hasten to point out, much substantive debate to be had over the merits of the Baker/Urban Land Institute plan--I am not endorsing it here. But better an open discussion and possible vote in Congress than unwarranted smears of inaction and a gag order from the WH, acting as a prelude to...what?
Granted, perhaps the SOTU bit is pure speculation. Maybe the WH plan is just about stiffing N.O., period. And we've all understandably been busy fighting Scalito cloture today...pitched battle though it was.
Still: if, come tomorrow evening, the papers and news shows are full of wonderment at the president's "bold, take-charge plan to clean up the mess in New Orleans", then I think we need to be ready with some perspective on the Real Story--how once again, Bush is ready to cynically muck around with the lives of hurricane victims, steamroll substantive proposals championed by members of his own party, and flout the conservative principles of decentralized governance and local solutions in order to make himself look good for the cameras.
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