The Washington Monthly

September 6, 2005

DAMAGE CONTROL....From Monday's New York Times:

Under the command of President Bush's two senior political advisers, the White House rolled out a plan this weekend to contain the political damage from the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina.

It orchestrated visits by cabinet members to the region, leading up to an extraordinary return visit by Mr. Bush planned for Monday, directed administration officials not to respond to attacks from Democrats on the relief efforts, and sought to move the blame for the slow response to Louisiana state officials, according to Republicans familiar with the White House plan.

The effort is being directed by Mr. Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove, and his communications director, Dan Bartlett.

Now. I don't mean to be picky. But maybe a more effective way to "contain the political damage" would be for the president to try that whole responsibility thing he's always talking about, and say something like: "We screwed up. I am very, very sorry." Also, maybe: "And instead of wasting time and resources by having my staff work at finding ways to blame anyone else for all of this, I'm going to put all hands on deck to deal with this awful tragedy that requires our full and complete attention."

Just a suggestion.

—Amy Sullivan 1:59 AM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (0)

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