"Republicans said Karl Rove, the White House deputy chief of staff and Mr. Bush's chief political adviser, was in charge of the reconstruction effort, which reaches across many agencies of government and includes the direct involvement of Alphonso R. Jackson, secretary of housing and urban development."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/15/politics/15bush. ...
http://www.mykeru.com/assets/images/bush_finger.gi ...
What experience does Rove have for the job?
Will Bush and Company never learn that appointing cronies to positions that take expertise is just dumb dumb dumb?!? And dangerous!
Will reconstruction be solely about political patronage?
If Rove is in charge is there a glimmer of hope that the barrier islands will be rebuilt?
Molly Ivens has it so right when she says, Bush is great at politics and lousy at governance.
In my opinion, Mayor Ray Nagin should appoint a citizen commission to give input directly to him and provide a base from which to help him in making decisions. And be a support base on behalf of city government. It's too soon to be reopening the city.
This may seem off the topic of Karl Rove except that it has to do with being able to hold ground for a quality reconstruction. That will take a powerful coalition. Nagin is not coming across as a good decisionmaker. I gave him the benefit of the doubt during the disaster; but his eagerness to reopen parts of the city seems short sighted.
Doubtless, he's yielding to pressure from businesses.