There's one person who, up to now, has largely been spared the scrutiny of their actions during the Fed's response to the Katrina disaster: Karl Rove. In case we need some reminding, Rove was
promoted shortly after Bush's 2nd Inauguration
Rove, the political mastermind behind two presidential elections, yesterday was named White House deputy chief of staff in charge of coordinating domestic policy, economic policy, national security and homeland security.
Clearly the people directly in charge of the Federal response are Chertoff and Brown, but let's assume for the moment that job titles are not mere window dressing in this administration (foolish of me, I know). What would be the responsibilities of such a Deputy Chief of Staff?
I don't know anything about the internal workings of the White House, but I'd sure like to know what was languishing in Karl Rove's inbox early last week which called for some White House leadership. Perhaps a request from Govs Richardson and Blanco for clearance to send National Guard troops from New Mexico to Louisiana? Or maybe some policy questions about chain of command responsibilities that the Federal and State agencies hadn't been able to work out? Seems to me there was a lot of "coordinating" that just didn't get done.
Well, thanks to BradBlog , one thing we do know is where Rove's priorities were last Tuesday night.
...while scores of thousands of U.S. citizens were fighting for their lives in the face of devastating flood waters encroaching into New Orleans, Rove laughed, greeted and thanked those who came to Crawford to attack a mother who'd lost her son in the cause of George W. Bush's unexplained "noble cause."
Yep, that's Karl for you.
WaPo's Feb2005 article announcing Rove's promotion raised some questions about his fitness for the job and ended with,
Paul C. Light, a scholar on government at the Brookings Institution, said he wonders whether Rove might find the role constraining. "He could live to regret the accretion of power and responsibilities," Light said.
I think Mr. Light was close but got it wrong. I doubt Rove is the type of person to regret much of anything. We're the ones living to regret his promotion.
Now the week's political hurricane has changed everything. There really IS a crisis for the White House. The response has been typical, shift the blame. And of course, who do you call to manage this crisis?
The effort is being directed by Mr. Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove, and his communications director, Dan Bartlett.
Aka: Deputy Piece of Crap in charge of coordinating all scapegoatings to cover up failures in domestic policy, economic policy, national security and homeland security.