How Karl Rove played politics while people drowned

[RamboLiberal]

I highly recommend this book:

This excerpt is adapted and reprinted by permission from "Machiavelli's Shadow: The Rise and Fall of Karl Rove," published this month by Modern Times.

If Bush had not seen what was taking place by Tuesday, Karl Rove had. The first evidence of Rove's involvement in the Katrina disaster occurred on Tuesday afternoon. "Rove understood what a nightmare this was for the president," Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana says, "so he went into high gear on the spin thing they're so good at in the White House. Rove had David Vitter, the Republican senator from Louisiana. I was at a press conference and David Vitter walked up to the mike and said, 'I just got off the phone with Karl Rove.' I looked at the governor and she looked at me, like, 'Why is David Vitter on the phone with Karl Rove?' I mean, he could have been talking to generals, the president himself, but Rove is just a political hatchet man."

Despite his expertise being politics, the administration had made Rove a central player in the handling of the disaster. "A light switch in the White House didn't get turned on without going through Rove," says Adam Sharp, an aide to Landrieu. "It was clear that Rove was the point person for the White House on this disaster."

That fact was proven precisely by what Vitter had done and said at the press conference. "As soon as Vitter said he had just gotten off the phone with Rove and other Republican officials," Landrieu says, "he started in on the first talking point to come out of the ordeal. I said to myself, 'Oh my God, I can't believe the White House has already given David Vitter talking points to talk about this.' We weren't going to blame anyone. We weren't going to blame the president. I mean, is there a Republican talking point for how to get people water? But that was Karl Rove."

Instead of supplying relief to the city, Rove had devised a scheme whereby he could blame the failure of government to take action on someone besides Bush. "They looked around," Landrieu says, "and they found a Democratic governor and an African American Democratic mayor who had never held office before in his life before he was mayor of New Orleans -- someone they knew they could manipulate. Ray Nagin had never held public office and here he was the mayor of New Orleans and it was going underwater."

http://www.salon.com/books/excerpt/2008/06/06/rove_katrina/

[jimshoes]

1. The people of this country owe

karl rove. I just hope someday to be able to give him what he deserves. One citizen at a time.

[yellowdogintexas]

2. I would stand in line for a long time just for the opportunity to bitch slap

the shit out of that man

[trof]

3. Can I be next?

Dibs.

[pansypoo53219]

7. crotch shot is MINE!

then a kick in the ass.

[SoCalDem]

5. Karl is lucky he's a republican

democrats handle disputes with ballot boxes..not bullet boxes (like soooo many right wingers have done throughout history)

[SharonAnn]

6. "I've been a changed woman ever since. It truly changed my life."

What powerful closing words. When it finally dawns on a Democrat that the * administration, led by Karl Rove, will do absolutely anything to get and keep power. Anything! They'll kill, steal, slander, etc. Other people's deaths don't matter unless they can use them to get what they want.

At some point the horrible understanding leaves human beings speechless. LIterally, "jaw-dropping" information in this.

[SoCalDem]

4. From the get-go, it was all about demeaning Blanco, the democRAT governor

painting her as an addle-brained, confused woman, who did not know what to do..while Haley Barbour, her neighbor to the east; a proud, responsible, republican man, knew exactly what to do..:puke:
and of course the ultimate "win" for them, was to splinter and scatter the once-reliable democratic voting base of NOLA..