WASHINGTON — As next week’s anniversary of Hurricane Katrina triggers recollections of rooftop refugees and massive devastation along the Gulf Coast, the White House has begun a public relations blitz to counteract Democrats’ plans to use the government’s tardy response and the region’s slow recovery in the coming congressional elections. President Bush will visit the area Monday and Tuesday, including an overnight stay in New Orleans. He probably will visit the city’s Lower 9th Ward, the heavily black area that remains mired in debris, and is expected to meet with storm victims.
You know, if the Bush Administration put as much effort into coordinating and adminstering relief efforts as they have into the propaganda effort necessary to spin their inept incompetence, New Orleans would be a whole lot farther along the road to recovery now than they actually are. Instead of an honest effort to combat the corruption, the ineptitude, and the silliness that have plagued the effort to rebuild New Orleans, we’ve been treated to Our Glorious Leader and his apologists attempting to spin dross into gold.
No matter how much lipstick put on this pig, it’s still going to be a pig.
While there’s no question that much has been done in New Orleans over the past year, there can be no doubt that more can, and should have been done. I can’t help but wonder what would have happened had Katrina come ashore in the Hamptons. I seriously doubt that much of the area would remain demolished, uninhabited, and unfit for human residence.
The trip will force Bush to revisit sensitive racial issues that arose with the flooding of New Orleans; at that time, civil rights leaders charged that the White House was slow to respond because so many victims were black. GOP strategists acknowledged that the administration’s failure to act quickly was a significant setback in their efforts to court traditionally Democratic African American voters.
The White House announced Bush’s visit Tuesday as a phalanx of administration officials stood before reporters to argue that billions of dollars had flowed to the region and millions more was on the way. The plans for the trip were disclosed one day after Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales announced that he was sending additional lawyers and resources to the city to fight fraud and abuse.
Yes, billions of dollars have flowed into the region, but this is about more than throwing money at New Orleans. This is about the resolve (or lack thereof) to rebuild a major American city, one largely populated by poor African-Americans (who, by the way, generally don’t vote Republican). For the Bush Administration to claim that the effort to rebuild New Orleans is a success is simply disingenuous…not to mention just plain wrong.
At Tuesday’s briefing, White House aides passed out folders and fact sheets that painted a picture of aggressive recovery efforts. A packet from the Army Corps of Engineers, responsible for the levees that were breached after the storm, carried the slogan: “One Team: Relevant, Ready, Responsible, Reliable.”
Donald E. Powell, the White House official in charge of recovery plans, declared that Bush was “fulfilling his commitment to rebuild the Gulf Coast better and stronger.”
While the rebuilding process continues be a long, hard road, one could reasonably argue that Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader’s commitment has been primarily to phoos ops. We can waste billions of dollars (and thousands of lives) in Iraq, but rebuilding the Gulf Coast just doesn’t seem to be much of a priorityfor this Administration.
The administration’s coordinated response is the latest example of White House officials maneuvering to cast a positive light on a campaign issue expected to hurt Republicans. Just this week, Bush acknowledged public anxiety over Katrina, along with concern about the war in Iraq and rising gasoline prices. But he defended his record and accused the Democrats of weakness, particularly on national security issues.
The White House effort comes as the Democrats, who plan to challenge Republicans on national security in this year’s midterm election campaign, are portraying the government’s response to Katrina as evidence that Bush failed to fix inadequacies exposed by the Sept. 11 attacks.
If this Administration’s response to Katrina matched the propaganda efforts coming out of the White House these days, the Gulf Coast would be in far better shape than it currently is. No, reasonable people don’t expect things to be as they were a mere year later, but entire neighborhoods in New Orleans are still uninhabitable. One of this nation’s great cities is a mere shadow of itself, and it appears destined to remain that way for some time to come.
On Tuesday, Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader will avail himself of yet more more photo ops in an effort to convince the American sheeple that he’s committed to the rebuilding effort. Whatever….
Anyone who’s been paying attention over the past year realizes what a clusterf—k the federal government’s response to Katrina has been. True, given the scope of the damage, some confusion is inevitable; that’s not what upsets me. What does upset me is this Administration’s disingenuous and dishonest effort to convince the American sheeple that they HAVEN’T completely screwed the pooch on this one. New Orleans, and the rest of the Gulf Coast, deserves better than propaganda and self-satisfied pronouncements.
WE DESERVE BETTER.
