Rove Gets Schooled

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_05/024004.php

INADVERTENTLY ACCEPTING THE PREMISE.... Soon after the BP oil spill disaster became a genuine crisis, White House critics and the media were very aggressive in pushing the "Obama's Katrina" frame. The line faded, due in large part to the fact that it didn't make any sense.

And now it's back. Just because. NBC's Chuck Todd even asked the president directly today to respond to the media's interest in the comparison. Obama dismissed the inquiry, saying he's far more focused on the problem itself than what pundits have to say about historical comparisons.

But Karl Rove is doing his part to revive the narrative, prompting Alex Seitz-Wald to raise a good point.

Today in the Wall Street Journal, Karl Rove pens an op-ed titled: "Yes, the Gulf Spill is Obama's Katrina." He predictably places blame on Obama for a "lethargic," "slow," and "unacceptable" response to the BP oil spill. But the real significance of the op-ed is not what Rove has to say about Obama; rather, it's that Rove is implicitly acknowledging that Bush screwed up the response to Katrina. Rove is essentially trying to make the case that Obama mismanaged a disaster almost as terribly as he and Bush did.

This is breaking news because, for years, despite all the evidence to the contrary, Rove has defended his administration's disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina.

Exactly. Rove and Republicans invested heavily in the notion that the Bush/Cheney response to the Katrina disaster was perfectly admirable. The criticisms, they said, were groundless. Using Katrina as the basis for comparisons for failed government responses just wasn't fair.

And now Rove and other Republicans are accepting the premise.

As Jon Stewart recently explained, "The crazy part is, it's conservatives and Republicans that are in the biggest rush to make the comparison. 'Remember that terrible thing that Bush did that we fought for eight years to convince you wasn't bad, but actually good? Well, now we use those very incidents as the low-water mark for your guy.' ... The best part is they can't even recognize their own tacit admission of the previous administration's failure."

Indeed, it wasn't Obama who approved this rig. It wasn't Obama who ignored the need for remote acoustic shutoff switches. It wasn't Obama who corrupted the MMS. It wasn't Obama who spent eight years downplaying the need for regulations and oversight of the oil industry.

Karl, I hate to break it to you, but the BP oil spill disaster certainly seems like Bush's Katrina.

—Steve Benen

[Fridays Child]

1. k/r

[Proud Liberal Dem]

2. Correction:

Bush's Katrina Episode 2: Bushco Strikes Back!

[zipplewrath]

3. Spin master

If memory serves me correctly, McCarthism, spin master, swift boating, the suffix "gate", and Katrina all came into our language to describe tactics and actions worthy of derision, because of REPUBLICAN actions. About the only ones I can think of from the democrats is "borked" and maybe "high tech lynching".

[Frustratedlady]

4. Bingo! Well put. nt

[Cha]

5. bush's brain is so fucking stupid.

That was the best answer to give to reporters asking about "Katrina" comparisons.

Let you guys talk about while he concentrates on the disaster.

[rudy23]

6. I'd forgive the Obama admin if this incident caught them in the middle of sweeping overhauls of Bush

and Cheney era policies.

It didn't. Obama wants to look forward, and doesn't really seem too interested in clearing his cabinets of Bushies and Bush era laissez-faire policies. If they'd spent the past year and a half getting on that, I'd have more sympathy. To me, it looks like Obama traded his principles away for a seat in the White House.

[jtrockville]

7. Yet Bush was "re-elected" despite his incompetence.

[Raster]

9. Bush* = NEVER lawfully and legally elected...

NEVER lawfully and legally re-elected.

[yowzayowzayowza]

8. Maybe we should start calling it the Rove Party.

If the RNC is broke and all the election money is going thru Rove's pac, why not?

[lunatica]

10. It's the "Don't use that fucking language around me" logic

[Peacetrain]

11. I was listening to Stewart when he made that comparisons

"The crazy part is, it's conservatives and Republicans that are in the biggest rush to make the comparison. 'Remember that terrible thing that Bush did that we fought for eight years to convince you wasn't bad, but actually good? Well, now we use those very incidents as the low-water mark for your guy.' ... The best part is they can't even recognize their own tacit admission of the previous administration's failure."
:rofl:

That should be on every piece of literature that goes out from the Democratic Party