Rove's Heck of a Speech

[ProSense]

Rove's Heck of a Speech

By Dana Milbank
Monday, May 15, 2006; 6:45 PM

It's a heck of a curse.

Presidential adviser Karl Rove had almost finished his appearance today at the American Enterprise Institute when it happened. Discussing the Bush administration's record on illegal immigration, he blurted out: "We're doing a heck of a job."

D'oh!

President Bush made the phrase a national shorthand for incompetence when he bestowed it on FEMA director Mike "Brownie" Brown in the days after Hurricane Katrina. And Rove knew he stepped in it today. First, he said the administration was doing "a heck of a lot better, uh, job of getting control of the border." Then he uttered the forbidden phrase, and it sent him into a syntactical tailspin: "We're doing a heck of a job -- lot better job at getting, at getting, uh, the -- the problem of catch-and-release under control."

Rove has a lot on his mind these days -- a fact hinted at in the introduction to his speech by AEI President Christopher DeMuth. "In Washington, the hens are clucking and pecking and the sharks are circling," DeMuth observed. "Still, he goes about his work with discipline, serenity, never permitting himself to lapse into vitriol at the unfairness of it all, even in circumstances of flagrant unfairness."

Among the unfair circumstances: Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who still has not released Rove from the probe into the Valerie Plame case. Add to that the unfairness of a Harris poll last week that put Bush's support at 29 percent. And top it off with the flagrant unfairness of new White House staff chief Joshua Bolten stripping Rove of his policy duties.

As if in answer to that demotion, Rove's AEI speech was billed as a "major policy address" -- and he inflicted a barrage of statistics on his audience. He knew that the tax burden went from 40.5 percent to 46.6 percent on the top 3 percent, that S&P 500 companies increased dividend payments 725 times, and that real disposable income was up 14 percent. He then recited border statistics for the week of April 10.

more...


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/15/AR2006051501217.html

[katinmn]

1. The "D'Oh!" comment is very cute, but WaPo still sucks

[sweetheart]

2. "real" is averages

What a total abuse of statistics.

1000 people in poverty an 1 rich guy does not make a middle
class no matter what mathematical wizardry of averages you
wish to employ.

Disposible income has not risen, just for a few rich slags.

[C_U_L8R]

3. Funny ...He "HeckofaJobbed" himself

I guess that's how politicians do it these days.
Back when politicians had true character,
they'd sit in a hot tub and open their veins...
or literally fall on their sword.

Phfft...These clowns like Rove are Faux all the way to the end.

[ProSense]

4. "D'oh!" Has the MSM ever displayed such irreverence to Rove? n/t

[Coexist]

5. Oh no he didn't!!!