Frank Rich: 'New Orleans was Iraq redux with an all-American cast'

[kpete]

Frank Rich: 'New Orleans was Iraq redux with an all-American cast'

RAW STORY
Published: Saturday August 26, 2006

When Bush visits the Gulf Coast in a few days, the White House will have its "work cut out for it" attempting to get the public to forget "the first anniversary of the downfall of his presidency," New York Times columnist Frank Rich writes in his Sunday column, RAW STORY has found.

"As they used to say in the French Quarter, bonne chance!" writes Rich. "The ineptitude bared by the storm -- no planning for a widely predicted catastrophe, no attempt to secure a city besieged by looting, no strategy for anything except spin -- is indelible."

"New Orleans was Iraq redux with an all-American cast," Rich writes.

Excerpts from Rich's column:

As an opening act, Bush met on Wednesday with Rockey Vaccarella, a Katrina survivor who with much publicity drove a "replica" of a FEMA trailer from New Orleans to Washington to seek an audience with the president. No Cindy Sheehan bum's rush for him. Bush granted his wish and paraded him before the press. That was enough to distract the visitor from his professed message to dramatize the unfinished job on the Gulf. Instead Vaccarella effusively thanked the president for "the millions of FEMA trailers" complete with air-conditioning and TV. "You know, I wish you had another four years, man," he said. "If we had this president for another four years, I think we'd be great."

...It was up to bloggers and Democrats to report shortly thereafter that Vaccarella had run as a Republican candidate for the St. Bernard Parish commission in 1999. It was up to Iris Hageney of Gretna, La., to complain on the Times-Picayune Web site that the episode was "a huge embarrassment" that would encourage Americans to "forget the numerous people who still don't have trailers or at least one with electricity or water."

That is certainly the White House game plan as it looks toward the president's two-day return to the scene of the crime. Just as it brought huge generators to floodlight Bush's prime-time recovery speech in Jackson Square a year ago -- and then yanked the plug as soon as he was done -- so it will stop at little to bathe this anniversary in the rosiest possible glow.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Frank_Rich_A_year_after_Katrina_0826.html

[uppityperson]

1. It won't work. Some may believe, but it won't work.

There are enough images to counter the words. I wonder if Ernesto fizzles, if Mr.bush will take credit?

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Another fake photo-op to take the spotlight off the real situation.

What a crock of crapola! :puke:
I am aghast at how blatantly phony and stupid these "photo-ops" are...

[wiggs]

3. There are Katrinas and Rockey Vaccarellas waiting in every policy area

Foreign policy, education, environment, health care, social security, civil rights....all have had or will have their equivalent of a katrina disaster or Iraq blunder as a result of this administration. Accordingly, each policy area has its veil of deception designed to fool as many people as possible.

I very much like the idea of weaving together blunders to build a case of overall incompetence, failure, and corruption. So talking about Iraq and Katrina in the same sentence works for me. More please.