Why does this not surprise me?
Brown told a group of graduate students Friday that some in the White House had suggested the federal government should take charge in Louisiana because Blanco was a Democrat, while leaving Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a Republican, in control in his state…
…”Unbeknownst to me, certain people in the White House were thinking, ‘We had to federalize Louisiana because she’s a white, female Democratic governor, and we have a chance to rub her nose in it,'” he said, without naming names. “‘We can’t do it to Haley (Barbour) because Haley’s a white male Republican governor. And we can’t do a thing to him. So we’re just gonna federalize Louisiana.'”…
…Blanco reacted sharply to Brown’s remarks.
“This is exactly what we were living but could not bring ourselves to believe. Karl Rove was playing politics while our people were dying,” Blanco said through a spokeswoman, referring to Bush’s top political strategist. “The federal effort was delayed, and now the public knows why. It’s disgusting.”
Every time I hear something like this, I’m reminded of how a former Bush Administration official once characterized the Bush White House:
“There is no precedent in any modern White House for what is going on in this one: a complete lack of a policy apparatus… What you’ve got is everything – and I mean everything – being run by the political arm. It’s the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis.”
Everything is political. Nothing else matters. Except maybe marketing. Think back to Sept. 2002, in the run-up to the 2002 midterm elections, as the Bush Administration made its case for the Iraq War. Why now, some asked, eleven years after the Gulf War, with Saddam Hussein’s regime crippled by sanctions, kept in a box by no-fly zones? White House chief of staff Andrew Card had the answer:
“From a marketing point of view, you don’t introduce new products in August.”
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By Bukko in Australia
Thanks for the link to the Suskind article with the DiIulio interview, Lisa. I had heard the DiI nut quote before, but never read the entire piece. What a monster Karl Rove is! I knew that in my gut already, but the more specifics I read about him, the more it concretes my opinion. He reads “The Prince” by Niccolo Machaivelli each year, as the story goes, but the thing about Machi is that he was an evil wannabe advisor with no power. Rove is a Gepetto (extending the Italian analogies) whose puppet has a finger on the nuclear trigger.
Rove IS a closeted, self-hating gay man with a sham “beard” marriage, right? The anecdotes about him frothing about how he was going to fuck someone over and then turning around all smiley, and how one of his fawners described him as “like a father” are TOO creepy. There are psychotic people in charge of the U.S. with the power to end civilised human life.
January 21, 2007 @ 9:04 pm | Comment
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By Gag Halfrunt
The Wikipedia entry about Karl Rove offers this little nugget:
As far as I know, Norwegians who live in Norway don’t agonise about the “historical duplicity” of their Swedish neighbours, with whom they get on very well. If Rove does hate Swedes, allows that hatred to cloud his professional judgement and imagines that by hating Swedes he honours his Norwegian ancestors, then yes, he has serious problems.
January 22, 2007 @ 3:01 am | Comment
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By OtherLisa
For Karl Rove, it’s all about the Swedes?! This sounds like material for Comedy Central. Thus tragedy becomes farce…
I have Norwegian ancestry and what I always heard was that Swedes make a lot of “Norwegian” jokes – Norwegians as hicks, basically.
January 22, 2007 @ 3:11 am | Comment
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By Pha
Have you guys seen the “frontline” about Rove? It’s pretty interesting. He’s an agnostic and doesn’t necessarily hate homosexuals. I used to hate Rove until I realized he was just basically a numbers cruncher. He’s all about the votes, and the marketing, and he doesn’t real care about any particular policy. So, in my opinion, it’s a matter of buyer beware. The American public bought a crappy product that was in a nice shiny box. AND WE BOUGHT IT TWICE!!!! It’s our fault.
PS. (It’s not my fault though).
January 27, 2007 @ 11:29 am | Comment