Bush From Jackson Square
The president's big speech tonight in New Orleans had the feel of a message constructed by a committee with all sorts of different goals, channeled through an embattled politician deploying all sorts of different themes.
There was Bush the Public Works Commissioner detailing the federal government's current and future operations in numbing detail.
There was Bush the Compassionate Conservative churning out Gersonian lines about faith and solidarity, and rediscovering poverty.
There was Bush the Resolute Leader promising to rebuild New Orleans and the whole Gulf Coast no matter the cost.
There was Bush the Ideologue endorsing congressional Republican plans to turn the disaster area into some sort of giant Enterprise Zone where government will guarantee government does not get in the way of all the entrepreneurs who will spring forth in response to tax credits and deregulation and low wages.
What was conspicuously missing, of course, was the promised Bush the Contrite admitting mistakes and accepting responsibility. Indeed, this speech seemed to retreat from his much-lauded acceptance of responsibility earlier this week. What failed, he said, was "the system," not particular agencies or their overseers; not Bush and his appointees, but that great abstraction, Government, which the GOP still pretends it has no real influence over.
And most notably, Bush did not do the one thing that might have begun to redeem his administration's negligent response: endorsing an independent investigation of what went wrong. No, can't do that; wouldn't be prudent, as his dad might have put it.
I'm guessing the speech, patched together as it was, will be relatively well received by a public that is happy their president is at least on the scene and expressing some willingness to take action.
Personally, I was stricken by the site of Jackson Square, emptied of the multitude of tarot card readers and portrait-painters and performance artists and street musicians and tourists and crazies who have always enlivened it, turned into yet another backdrop for yet another political speech.
But Jackson Square will survive this profanation, just as the city it symbolizes has survived all matter of human folly for centuries.
Comments (33)
Tonight was all about image. The shell game of Bush as leader, compassionate conservative, all the roles you articulated.
And in the symbolism dept: the true blue shirt with open collar and rolled up sleeves. Message: I'm working.
Except. Was it a trompe l'oeil that the man seemed too small, the shirt ill-fitting? Who we gonna believe--Bush's teleprompted words or our lyin' eyes?
September 15, 2005 8:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
2 questions come to mind
Will the "whatever the cost" bother conservatives as much as it seems like it should? Will the media, and the Democrats, be ready to point out that Bush ought to have made clear how he intends to pay for this, and will he still seek to make the 01 and 03 tax cuts permanent? Moreover, what will happen when some conservatives start to argue that New Orleans should be more self-reliant and show less of a "welfare mentality," expecting the federal government to pay for it all?
Secondly, what will happen to the operation, apparently officially under Rove's authority, if and when he is indicted? It seems reasonable to expect that might be coming in the next 2 - 6 weeks.
September 15, 2005 8:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
How to pay for it?
Print more money, or borrow it from Asian central banks.
The consequences are middle-to-long term.
The political payoff is immediate-to-middle term.
To this administration, that's not even a choice.
Moreover, what will happen when some conservatives start to argue that New Orleans should be more self-reliant...?
For five-plus years, the 'left' wing of the GOP has been told to shut up, sit down, and be invisible. And they have complied, with three successful election cycles to show for it.
It's the right wing of the party -- the Chicago School groupies and AynRand roadies -- who will take one for the team this time.
Parteitreue immer wieder!
September 15, 2005 8:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bush is playing a difficult hand. He mentioned religion relentlessly, trying to shore up his base, but the only way out of his hole is by spending billions of dollars, much of which will be perceived to go to poor people -- poor black people. That doesn't excite the red-neck Rapture crowd much, and it excites the mainstream, white-collar Republican even less.
Josh Marshall hit it on the head earlier today when he warned that regardless of what kind of glorious reconstruction Bush proposes, the devil is in the details, and these guys do nothing but get the details wrong. Yes, Rove and Cheney are in the details, and, apparently, Rumsfeld too. And what was that stuff about the miltary taking over in case of disaster all about anyway?
September 15, 2005 8:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
More spectacle. With green light, it would have looked like Oz. Karl's behind the curtain on this show. The president's in his trademark blue shirt in front of St. Louis Cathedral, lit up by lights provided by the White House. I'm afraid the speech will appeal to a lot of people who don't think too hard. He sounds generous until you realize his friends, Pioneers and Rangers and their college roommates loyal to the party will get the lions' share of the money being ladled out. Mayor Daley The First would be impressed at the level of patronage on the horizon for Katrinaland. The tax cuts cost more than the rainy day called Katrina they should have been saved for. This will hasten the goal of ideo-republicans; the eventual starving of the beast, the completion of which will be a collapsed treasury. Then we'll truly be the you're on your own-ership society. True Darwinism in an age of creationism and intelligent design.
September 15, 2005 8:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here the plan is to admit some errors, and use that good will to push through billions of dollars in patronage funds. Turn a sow's ear into the largest bonanza of a politician ever dared dream of, and maintain complete control over its distribution.
Moreover, do it in a way that makes it unassailable. Anyone who would oppose the plan is just as unpatriotic as anyone who might oppose the Iraq war. Opposing the plan is defined as suggesting that someone might be at fault and that an investigation is called for, i.e. rather broadly.
The goal of this strategy is only secondarily to scare off Democrats. The more pressing goal is to acheive party loyalty by providing rank and file legislators with both positive and negative incentives to stay in line. The positive incentive is that the bandwagon is strong and fast. The negative incentive is that the bandwagon will role over republicans first. Party loyalty is not something in the water republicans drink (though it helps to have orthodox religiosity on your side), it is the product of control strategies implemented from the top.
The only way to fight this is head on. Trying to push back at the margins isn't going anywhere.
September 15, 2005 8:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's an easy one: Bush will just have to immediately pardon him. I mean, for the good of the reconstruction effort, no?
September 15, 2005 8:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Personally, I was stricken by the site of Jackson Square, emptied of the multitude...who have always enlivened it, turned into yet another backdrop for yet another political speech.
That was totally weird, even spooky. It looked like a movie set of the Square and the St. Louis Cathedral after some terrible catastrophe had driven all the people out, with him as the sole survivor. Of course he could not have had real hurricane victims around; they might have booed or worse.
He's going to send Karl Rove as his angel of mercy to direct the recovery and reconstruction. God help us in Louisiana and Mississippi. It will be about as well-planned and well-executed as the Iraqi reconstruction. All the crony companies will be feeding at the trough, doing inferior work and charging profiteer prices.
Was his shirt buttoned wrong?
September 15, 2005 8:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
The only way to fight this is head on. Trying to push back at the margins isn't going anywhere.
This should be a golden opportunity for Democrats too. We how have absolute proof of the irresponsibility and failure to lead by the Republicans and Bush in particular. A responsible leader would have announced a modest tax hike to pay for the rebuilding of Katrina Land, saying, "we are all Americans, and we dig deep when any of us are down and out". Instead, no thought is given to how our children and grandchildren will ever pay for this. This generation is certainly not the "greatest generation". Possibly the "stingiest generation"?
September 15, 2005 9:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
I couldn't help thinking that he looked like the sole survivor of some apocolyptic event, speaking to a public that no longer existed, a leader of nothing. That could have been right out of a Twilight Zone episode.
It will shore up the base, but do nothing for the outraged public. Where the train will come off the rails will be after these early recovery packages are approved and the fiscal republicans, fearful of their future past 2006 with no president to back them and no values platform to fall back on that anyone cares about, decide to break ranks with the Rapturepublicans and balance the books with Democrats happily in agreement. That'll be 6 months from now.
It's just too early for the 'every man for himself' mindset to show, but it's coming.
September 15, 2005 9:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
ambivalent. They may have some sympathy for the people that died in the flood and want to see New Orleans rebulit and the people helped but then their Knee jerk conservatism takes hold and they scream
I DON'T WANT MY TAXES TO GO UP!!!!!!!
Did you notice the building that Bush stood in front of looks like a HAUNTED MANSION?
and now with apologies to Tone LOC.
He saw his popularity as cool
on 9-11 he had the people fooled
he even invaded iraq
on medicare he took a whack
social security appeared the next
but something came unexpected
it was funky cold Katrina
He saw the winds in the south
out west he filled his mouth
with the cake from John McCain
but the south got the hurricane
and Bush continued on vacation
while Katrina took on the southern nation.
Bush got caught again just like on 9-11
but he couldn't fool the people
he couldn't hide behind the church and steeple
his momma denigrated the poor.
and now Bush' popularity approaches a new floor
that funky cold Katrina
showed the Republicans still so meaner
than the romans who persecuted the christians
it took 5 long years and thousands of deaths
but the people finally woke up.
When they drank the funky cold Katrina.
If you have come to the point where complaining about the Republican party does not do much for you then browse this web page and take action. If you don't like the content of a television program, you call their sponsors and demand a change or you will boycott the sponsor. If you don't like the content of the Republican Party program, you call their contributors and demand the CEO call the Republican Party and get the Republican Party to accede to your progressive agenda demands or you will boycott the contributor.
http://tinyurl.com/8ghl8
September 15, 2005 9:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
How does Bush propose to pay for thNew Orleans and Iraq?
And when?
September 15, 2005 9:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bush's speech:
"The Titanic's sinking was something else, wasn't it? The heroism of the passengers, the kindness of strangers. Quite a sight to behold. Now, make no mistake: steerage isn't the American way. But what counts is this: We'll rebuild that Titanic. And that ballroom will never look so magnificent."
September 15, 2005 9:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
In the old days, this was called a hallucination. Republicans think it is a vision. What are they getting prescriptions for these days? The Democrats will just have to talk them down.
A number of observations;
September 15, 2005 9:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
I really need to see the Dems stand up and ask some serious questions regarding this speech. It's time to start asking for a full accounting of the costs of the Iraq Project, and to hammer this Administration for the unaccounted tens of millions of dollars. Bush said that inspectors general would review all Gulf Coast expenditures. Is it possible for a similar team to review Iraq expenditures?
Can we trust companies that have misappropriated funds in Iraq to rebuild the Gulf Coast? Can we trust the administration to manage the program? Does Bush have a strategy for rebuilding the Gulf Coast? If so, could he come up with a strategy for rebuilding Iraq?
When did Bush draw the connection between poverty, race history, and those who have been cut off from the opportunity of America? Is he willing to establish a dialogue with Americans on this subject?
It seems like the Dems are going to fold on Bush, just like they did after 9/11. I couldn't be more disgusted...
September 15, 2005 10:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
All the crony companies will be feeding at the trough, doing inferior work and charging profiteer prices.
I almost hesitate to bring up the notion of framing, but we really need to use a particular one here: carpetbaggers. Halliburton, et al, go where the war and misery and destruction are, to line their pockets with taxpayers' money and the dishonest profits from shoddy work & creative accounting. Trust me, people in the south will know exactly what we mean in using that word, while references to cronyism have less impact, simply because cronyism is the norm there.
September 15, 2005 10:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're right, Jeffgee. Tonight, Bush was The Wizard of Goz (Gulf Opportunity Zone).
I could not help recalling the lines of La Fontaine's fable "The Bat and the Two Weasels":
"I am a bird, look at my wings.... I am a mouse, long live the rats."
The BatBush version would be: “I’m compassionate, see my big Marshall plan... I’m conservative, long life to the Goz !
September 15, 2005 10:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
So, If the numbers keep going south, would we see another "october surprise" in september? Distraction...distraction...that is what is needed at this time...
September 15, 2005 10:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bush and his crew have made their feelings clear, they're sorry "to the extent" that they're responsible. But they don't believe that they're responsible at all. They won't give up on blaming the locals (actually on having their clients do that) because they probably believe, based on past experience, that they can create truth through repetition. In this case, even though it's the government response that's at issue, they're benefitting from the fact that nobody expects the White House to control the weather. I think they're hoping that, within 2 or 3 years, people will chalk all of this up to an unpreventable natural disaster and that nobody will take any blame. Sure, sure, that completely sidesteps the issues at hand but... that's what they do.
September 15, 2005 10:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
"If you have come to the point where complaining about the Republican party does not do much for you then browse this web page and take action. If you don't like the content of a television program, you call their sponsors and demand a change or you will boycott the sponsor. If you don't like the content of the Republican Party program, you call their contributors and demand the CEO call the Republican Party and get the Republican Party to accede to your progressive agenda demands or you will boycott the contributor."
Or you convince people that your "progressive agenda" is a better idea, and you get your people elected...duh!
September 16, 2005 2:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
A couple of things came to me after watching President last evening:
The first was that he certainly had that going to the woodshed look, as he made the long walk to the microphones last night.
The second was the two-fold attacks that I think might be coming. If the democrats push for scaling back on Katrina relief by being fiscally sound, they're going to be painted as against the evacuees, giving the republicans cover and turning this into a blame game again. And the second attack is the one that I'm more impressed with, by pushing for a bigger military, because the administration says that they're needed to protect and serve during national emergencies, he's set things up to try and make a case for the draft again.
I realize that the later might be wandering into tinfoil hat territory, but it seems plausible especially considering how badly we're going to need more troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Just some thoughts. Anyone else think anything similar?
-J
September 16, 2005 4:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
Earlier this week Bush dispatched his brain, Karl Rove to gather the thoughts of the GOP heavies about how to respond to Katrina. After checking with Grover Norquist it has been decided that Karl Rove should head-up the effort. It is questionable whether in their spare time they have been able to engineer a flood barrier to protect New Orleans on a par with the Dutch, who took many years and great expense to build a system, but still did it for far less and far more efficiently than anything this country will dream up, but those are just details.
At this point the response to Katrina is being brought to you by the same people who are bringing you the botched war in Iraq and the botched reconstruction in Iraq, again just details.
Both wars and disasters are opportunities to cut taxes, win unlimited no bid contracts, to lower wages in the U.S., to do away with any constraints on these corporations that take and take and only give excuses for why they cannot perform their contracts and then walk away when the money flow dries up. They are on their way to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast and some are already there. Thanks, Karl and Grover, you have done a heck of a job.
Talk about opportunity, maybe there is money there for a big fat book advnce for Katrina and the Robber Barrons.
September 16, 2005 5:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
After the speech, watching Larry King, I was heartened by two items:
Haley Barbour, bless his wicked, money-grubbing soul, expressed alarm at the idea of the military telling Mississippi how to rebuild.
David Gergen refusing to take higher taxes off the table.
And yes, the blue shirt that matched the eerie church behind was ill-fitting and inappropriate.
September 16, 2005 5:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
What I took from the speech is Bush accepting "responsibilty" but with the caveat that the reconstruction will be done as he sees fit. His admission of fault has nothing to do with admitting his mistakes but has everything to do with who gets to "call the shots" in reconstruction.
I agree with many others who think the reconstruction will be Bush's attempt to recast New Orleans as a "conservative" city. The city itself is very liberal even though it is in the heart of "red" America. The dems are being locked out of the process, whether it be in investigating what went wrong to deciding how the city is to be rebuilt.
Bush vowed the city is to be rebuilt, not out of compassion, but as somekind of a shrine for the policies of the conservative movement.
And if that happens like that the reconstruction will happen for all the wrong reasons...
September 16, 2005 5:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
Here's my list so far of crony companies already in place doing recovery operations:
Bechtel
Blackwater
Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton
CenterPoint Energy, former Reliant
Kenyon International Emergency Services
The Shaw Group
Latts, several of these companies are based in Houston. Can you call Texans carpetbaggers? Blackwater lists a North Carolina address, not eligible for carpetbagger label either. I'm all for a catchword description, and I have chosen "crony companies". Maybe someone else can come up with something better to use in framing. I don't hear Democrats talking about this. It's time to start.
September 16, 2005 6:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
Can you call Texans carpetbaggers?
Well, technically, locals who did such things were "scalawags." But the thing is that their being based in the South doesn't really matter, because they're still scavengers that move in to embattled areas specifically to profit from cronyism & the misery of others. That some contractors are from the south doesn't change the fact that American soldiers in Iraq were getting crappy, substandard food, and everyone understands that war profiteering is just bad. Calling them "carpetbaggers" is just a way to elicit an automatic negative response from those who would normally defend them, and it's an accusation that we can defend.
September 16, 2005 7:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
In a nutshell, Bush’s Katrina recovery plan is just what we’ve come to expect: almost unlimited - and unfunded - federal largesse, with no accountability for past mistakes or independent oversight for the future. Laissez les bons temps rouler, indeed.
For the full story, see:
"Bush's Katrina Cop Out"
September 16, 2005 7:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
The blogs reaffirm that W & crew still don't have a clue. It is time to accept offers of aid, advice & supervision of interested outsiders with experience, successful experience, in disaster recovery. But do not expect to see Canadian or Israeli supervision or aid on the gulf coast & no Cuban or Iranian aid or will reach the gulf shores.
The program of handouts for Haliburton will continue.
September 16, 2005 8:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
We need a new mutual fund (sticker=GOZ?) consisting of the companies Jane lists, so
we suckers can get in on the ground floor.
September 16, 2005 8:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
That Shaw Group is a crony company all right. Just another pig at the trough
From Political Animal:
"The Shaw Group, a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate, is headed by Jim Bernhard, the current chairman of the Louisiana Democratic Party. Bernhard worked tirelessly for Democrat Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco's runoff campaign and served as co-chair of her transition team. Another Shaw executive was Blanco's campaign manager. Bernhard is back-scratching chums with Blanco, whom he has lent/offered the Shaw Group's corporate jets to on numerous occasions."
September 16, 2005 11:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
He mentioned religion relentlessly, trying to shore up his base, but the only way out of his hole is by spending billions of dollars, much of which will be perceived to go to poor people -- poor black people. That doesn't excite the red-neck Rapture crowd much, and it excites the mainstream, white-collar Republican even less.
So all Republicans are racist, right? I think this is part true and part nonsense. It is certainly true that conservatives don't think the government should spend money on anti-poverty programs, and race of course plays a role in that attitude. But I'm not hearing a lot of objection to spending money on reconstruction, which is what we're talking about here. The objections are coming from conservatives and many others who are objecting to the indiscriminate waste that anyone can see is coming. It's going to be an orgy of cronyism and corruption. Furthermore, it will come on top of the total lack of spending discipline in the rest of the budget.
September 16, 2005 12:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Shaw Group works both sides, Democrats and Republicans.
At least two major corporate clients of lobbyist Joe Allbaugh, President George W. Bush's former campaign manager and a former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, have already been tapped to start recovery work along the battered Gulf Coast.
One is Shaw Group Inc. and the other is Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9282533/
I guess everybody is happy.
September 16, 2005 3:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
How does Bush propose to pay for thNew Orleans and Iraq?
And when?
That will be left to his successors to solve with our children and grandchildren paying the price.
September 16, 2005 4:04 PM | Reply | Permalink