[Mb-civic] Who's in Charge? Karl Rove! - Dan Froomkin - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Who's in Charge? Karl Rove!

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Thursday, September 15, 2005; 12:00 PM

All you really need to know about the White House's post-Katrina 
strategy -- and Bush's carefully choreographed address on national 
television tonight -- is this little tidbit from the ninth paragraph of 
Elisabeth Bumiller and Richard W. Stevenson's story in the New York 
Times this morning:

"Republicans said Karl Rove, the White House deputy chief of staff and 
Mr. Bush's chief political adviser, was in charge of the reconstruction 
effort."

Rove's leadership role suggests quite strikingly that any and all White 
House decisions and pronouncements regarding the recovery from the storm 
are being made with their political consequences as the primary 
consideration. More specifically: With an eye toward increasing the 
likelihood of Republican political victories in the future, pursuing 
long-cherished conservative goals, and bolstering Bush's image.

That is Rove's hallmark.

Rove, Bush's long-time political adviser and the "architect" of Bush's 
ascendancy, was rewarded after the 2004 election with a position at the 
White House with overt policy responsibilities. But whereas in some 
previous White Houses, governance took precedence over campaigning once 
the election was safely over, Rove has shown no sign of ever putting 
policy goals above political ones. (See my Rove profile.)

Tonight's speech promises two classic features of the Rove approach.

Bush will take advantage of powerful imagery -- the Associated Press 
reports the speech will be held in historic Jackson Square, with the 
famous St. Louis Cathedral as a backdrop -- and he won't risk having 
anyone around who might disagree with him or ask an impertinent 
question. In fact, the AP says, there won't be a live audience at all. 
(And even the journalists covering the event are being told they won't 
be allowed to stray from their press vans.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2005/09/15/BL2005091501098.html
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