What drives this man and why the hell does he get away with this stuff? A huge thanks to Talking Points Memo for this via The DailyKos. The original article in in the Salt Lake Tribune.

As specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew’s first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas.

Which prompts Marcos to comment:

Bush’s use of firefighters as human props doesn’t win the “most fucked up” prize because it was the most costly for the nation — the Iraq War wins hands down. It doesn’t win because it caused the most deaths, or damaged the reputation of the U.S. the most, or harmed national security by outing undercover CIA agents. In the greater scheme of things, this may seem as small fry compared to the long stream of serious failures in this White House.

It’s the most fucked up because it is easily the most crassly political act ever taken by this administration. Bush is so thoroughly a PR vessel that he can’t even tour a disaster zone without his human backdrop. He’s been a PR marionette for so long — clear brush for the cameras! — that he’s become thoroughly incapable of keeping it real. God forbid he try to connect with people, get a better understanding of their efforts to cope with real disaster. That’s not worth his time. Nope, it’s got to be turned into a frickin’ Bush campaign commercial. Everything is political. Everything.

It suddenly puts those Coast Guard helicopters in that photo op in clearer perspective, doesn’t it? With the assembled military and Coast Guard personnel standing at attention in the background.

I was appalled when I saw the Coast Guard helicopters and rescuers who were used as props by bush to send his usual Rovian/Rasputin message to the public but now at least it is getting some notice. Thanks Marcos.

And in case anyone wonders just how bush manages to function without a soul it seems it’s a skill he gets directly from his mother. Barbara Bush said the following in Houston after touring the Astrodome: [my emphasis]

In a segment at the top of the show on the surge of evacuees to the Texas city, Barbara Bush said: “Almost everyone I’ve talked to says we’re going to move to Houston.”

Then she added: “What I’m hearing which is sort of scary is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality.

“And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this–this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them.”

In her own words from NPR via Editor and Publisher.