When Political Whores Run Things

Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina
Excellent	12%
Good	16%
Fair	25%
Poor	45%
RasmussenReports.com

The Rasmussen poll above was done on September 2-3. It overlaps the timing of a Washington Post poll that showed public perception be be slightly less favorable. In the WaPo poll 47% disapproved of Bush's handling of the crisis, compared to 46% who approved. If the Rasmussen numbers are split between positive and negative perception, they break down to 53% positive vs. 45% negative.

Hardly much of a crisis bounce for the President, but not uniform condemnation either.

However, what has to be of concern to Karl Rove and his crew is the fact that since becoming involved in the crisis, the President's performance approval has been declining.

According to polls conducted by SUSA, when asked "Do you approve or disapprove of President Bush's response to the Hurricane," Bush's numbers have gone from positive (48% to 39% approve to disapprove) on Wednesday to negative territory (53% to 40% disapprove to approve) by Friday of last week.

So, the reponse that the President's team can come up with is to blame local government for the disaster. As AmericaBlog points out,

"George Bush was on vacation while those local officials were being overwhelmed by the biggest natural disaster ever to hit the country. The President toured Arizona and California on Monday and Tuesday playing politics while people were dying. He didn't leave his VACATION until Wednesday afternoon."

Amazing how ofter the word "vacation" comes up in relationship to this crisis. Most of Team Bush was taking the month of August off and many were loath indeed to return to work to deal with what my turn out to be the greatest natural disaster in United States history. Running the country is such fucking "hard work." The Washington Post has this sad detail.

"One reason for the slow White House response, said a Republican who has been in contact with several officials, is that so many high-level officials and aides were on vacation. Vice President Cheney, for instance, was in Wyoming and did not return unil Thursday, and Nicolle Devenish, the president's top communications adviser, is getting married in Greece with a number of mid-level aides in attendance."

Josh Marshall expands on Devenish's "Greek wedding":

"It so happens Devenish is marrying Mark Wallace, who, it turns out, took over from the esteemed Michael Brown as General Counsel of FEMA when Brown ascended from General Counsel to Deputy Director.

Wallace was General Counsel at FEMA as the agency was being transitioned into the Department of Homeland Security in 2002 and 2003. After that he took a different job at DHS before becoming Deputy Campaign Manager of the Bush-Cheney 2004.

According to The Hotline (10/16/03), Wallace got his start in politics as Jeb Bush's driver in 1994."

Is it any wonder Bush's poll numbers are dropping and it is taking all of Karl Rove's resources to try and keep the public from seeing what the Bush Administration for the fraud it is?

Michael Brown, the head of FEMA is totally unqualified for the job. He got the job by being the former college roommate of one of President Bush's closest advisors, Joe Allbaugh. When Brown got promoted, the guy who took his place as General Counsel at FEMA was Jeb Bush's former driver, who later became a campaign manager for the Bush reelection campaign.

Is it any wonder FEMA couldn't and can't respond? Bush has loaded the agency with all the dead-weight of his political machine. There isn't a professional (excluding political whores) in the whole place.