So Now We've Got a Plan

Wearing a light blue shirt, standing in front of a light blue cathedral during his fourth (fourth!) trip to New Orleans since Katrina demolished the city, President Bush laid out his plan to rebuild the city and the Gulf Coast. Apparently he's going to throw money at the problem.

But that's not all he's throwing at the problem. Although he didn't mention it tonight, he's throwing Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove at it, too. That's a sure sign the administration is putting all it can into the effort--the effort to rebuild the President's image, that is. Image, poll numbers, and campaigning is what Rove knows, and that's exactly what he's going to go about rebuilding here. He'll certainly be able to spread the spoils of reconstruction around to administration friends and allies. Halliburton already has a piece of the rebuilding pie, and it's just a matter of time until more familiar names start showing up. They'll go into this with all the seriousness they bring to bear in rebuilding Iraq. (How many hours a day of electricity are they up to now in Baghdad?) Rove will have contracts to award, cash to hand out, and a president to make look good. Not that I had any doubt, but I'll put cash down that at least one of Bush's predictions in the last couple of weeks is going to come true. By the time this is all over, Trent Lott's going to have one heck of a great new house.

It's really too bad in times like these that we don't have an opposition party to speak of. Even as Bush sinks in the polls, the Democrats haven't figured out how to put themselves forward as a viable alternative. The DLC pols are spending too much time distancing themselves from Howard Dean to figure out that everybody benefits from a united front. Senator Harry Reid had some good comments about Katrina earlier today, but we're reaching a point when good comments are not enough. One of the phrases Reid focused on today was, "We can do better." Yes, we can do better as Americans, but the Democrats also need to do better as an opposition party.