Josh talks a bit about the bush response to the failure of his response to the Katrina catastrophe, here, here, here, and most especially here. As you’ll notice the one thing all those links have in common is Karl Rove.

Remember, bush put Michael Brown, an utterly unqualified individual, in charge of FEMA which by that time had been downgraded to sub-Cabinet level and placed in the purview of another utterly unqualified individual, Michael Chertoff and his Department of Homeland Security (remember this is the guy who was the second choice after Bernard Kerik, [shudder]). So when Brown proved incapable of doing his job with even a modicum of skill he was first recalled, then fired (oops, resigned…).

So Bush’s way of dealing with having unqualified people in charge of disaster response was to put Karl Rove in charge instead, though he has no experience or skill at all in dealing with disasters that affect citizens, natural or otherwise. It’s actually the first thing Bush has done right.

You heard me, he got it right, he finally appointed someone eminently qualified to respond to the disaster facing this country. I don’t mean the millions of displaced people in the Gulf Coast who have no homes, no jobs, barely the clothes on their back and little hope of seeing any of that anytime soon. I mean the real disaster this administration has experienced, the disaster that has befallen the saintly image of George W. Bush. For this the White House and the administration has responded with forthrightness, high visibility and a massive campaign to set things right as soon as possible.

And who better to do that than Karl Rove? His entire career has been to sugarcoat politicians, especially W., when they face a crisis and it is inarguably true that Bush has never faced a crisis like this in his life. It requires immediate action, an open ended budget totalling in the billions and as much visibility and resources as this country can muster.

The displaced people of the Gulf (either Gulf for that matter) will just have to wait. This administration has priorities and first among them is the need to save bush’s sorry ass from history’s garbage dump. And if it can also be used as a way to funnel as much money as possible to his political supporters and corporate cronies, all the better.