Is Dick Cheney setting Bush up to fail on Katrina?

by emptywheel

Tens of thousands of Gulf Coast residents are still searching for family members. But we seem to have found most senior members of the Bush Administration. Bush finally ended his vacation and has even gotten himself to New Orleans to receive an earful from Mayor Nagin. Condi took a break to hit Broadway in her new shoes but now has returned to DC. And Chertoff is standing by silently, not apparently doing anything, but at least he's present. Oh, and "Brownie" is "doing a heck of a job." While Rummy hasn't done a presser (probably a smart decision on the part of the White House; imagine if he started calling the people stuck in NOLA "dead-enders"?), but Bush did thank him during his photo op in Mobile.

But where is Dick? Headed to Canada to visit "the world's largest deposit of oil." Headed to St. Louis later this month to raise some money (for GOP Senator Jim Talent, not for Katrina victims).  (FWIW, I'm wondering if Dick is doing something associated with the Jackson Hole One Fly contest, a very pricy charity event to save fish--he competed and was honorary chair in 1995 for their 10th anniversary; if so, he won't be back in DC until after next weekend.)

In any case it seems clear that Dick is not in DC helping out on disaster response.

Update: Dick is back in DC (see picture above), as of at least Saturday.

I can't help but wonder whether Dick is deliberately remaining aloof, allowing Bush to manage this one on his own--and predictably for Bush, to fail.

Dick's absence is strange given the prominent role he had in responding to 9/11. From Richard Clarke's book, we get the description of Cheney huddling with Hughes, Mrs. Dick, and Rove in the bunker, planning the response to the crisis. We know from testimony to the 9/11 Commission that Cheney probably usurped Bush's authority when he gave the order to shoot down passenger jets on 9/11. Bush was out of the loop on crisis response on 9/11; Dick Cheney was largely in control (which is not to say I wouldn't love to have Richard Clarke in charge of response to Katrina right now). And it worked. A lot more effectively than the response to Katrina has worked.

But from all appearances, Dick has been uninvolved in the management of this crisis. In an (IMO over-the-top) interview, Chuck Rangel asserted before Katrina hit that Rummy is now in charge, not Dick. Given the apparently similar results between our efforts in Iraq and our efforts in New Orleans, I kind of believe it.

But why would Dick let Bush flounder as he has been (I'm tempted to make a joke about Bush floundering while Dick catches trout...)? Why would Dick let Bush screw up so badly that it may have long-term repurcussions for the Republican party?

I've long asserted that as the Plame Affair gets more and more serious for the culprits, it has opened up fissures within the White House. I think that, at one point, Libby and Rove and Hadley and Novak and Cheney had worked out a story that might, just might, get all of them off. But once it became clear that Rove leaked to Cooper, you began to see leaks that seemed to undermine the team defense. You'd see a leak by Luskin answered by a leak from Libby's lawyer (followed by weak attempts to blame it all on Ari and Powell). Back and forth, no common defense.

I'm not sure exactly what story Rove could tell that would sink Cheney. Perhaps he has proof  that he didn't attend Cheney's "get-Wilson" meetings in March 2003 and that the plot to out Plame was devised in those meetings, significantly before he got involved closer to July 2003. But if Rove has such a story, then we may have one cut throat (there's another trout joke here) political operative trying to save his own hide at the expense of another one. Rove versus Cheney.

One piece of evidence that suggests Dick may be deliberately staying out of this is the ferocity with which Newt has criticized the response:

I think it puts into question all of the Homeland Security and Northern Command planning for the last four years, because if we can't respond faster than this to an event we saw coming across the Gulf for days, then why do we think we're prepared to respond to a nuclear or biological attack?

Newt's basically saying, bluntly, Bush has failed to protect the country. We know the last time, when Bush succeeded in responding, it was largely the work of Cheney (and Clarke and Giuliani). Newt and Cheney have both floated the notion of running for President. If Bush fails miserably on this, homeland security will be a perfect issue for either to run on. If Cheney can explain why he wasn't involved this time around.

So we have Newt making a remarkably disloyal comment about Bush's (and Chertoff's and Ridge's and Brownie's) response to this crisis. Newt, an ally of Dick's. Newt, who also attended those early "get-Wilson" meetings at Dick's office. Newt, who accompanied Dick and Libby to CIA to pressure analysts.

There is certainly some disunity within the Administration, partly in response to the Plame investigation. If Newt and Cheney feel like they (or Libby) have been sold out by Rove, they might go to great lengths to get their revenge.

But how many people are they willing to let die in the process?

Comments

[John Forde]

What amazes me is that people in the media must know that Rove gate is really about the treason case (Niger Forgeries) and that the Special Prosdecutor Fitzgerald is closing in with powerful evidence against people at the very top of the administration.

Karina is mismanaged because the White House is paralyzed. The media businesses know this but say nothing.

[emptypockets]

So what you're saying is, something here's fishy.

Did you think anything of Hastert's "don't rebuild" remark? I was wondering if he's really that stupid or if it was a loyalist's attempt to draw fire away from his chief when Bush was flailing the most.

[Mimikatz]

Maybe its just that Cheney lacks the heart and imagination to deal with something like this. Here's a guy who basically believes everyone has to stand on their own 2 feet and pull themselves up by their bootstraps. He is all for gov't helping business, but not helping individuals. Does he really have any organizaional skills? Does he really know anything about disaster relief? Maybe they all just recognized there are no winners here and are keeping their heads down. Or Cheney really is ill.

[emptywheel]

Mimikatz

Yeah, I AM thinking they just couldn't deal with this. The delay, I'm increasingly convinced, has to do with them trying to figure out how to fit this into their paradigm. They really did try. Sending money to Robertson's charity. Riley's Golden Rule, an attempt to get towns to pick up the burden of shelter rather than the Federal government. An emphasis on religious charities for secondary housing. And several cabinet members, working the phones, to try to get corporations to pay for this (how do you think they got WalMart to cough up its millions??)

They paused to try to figure out how they could do this using only compassionate conservative methods. I really believe that.

And then they realized it was a tremendous, obvious failure. That they needed to revert to the old methods, even if it exposed the benefits of a real government.

[tulip]

the likliest reason, seems to me, is that he's ill. They're an insanely loyal group; it's a mania, almost a pathology, with them, Basic character trait for admission to the inner circle. I don't think Cheney would & if he did, he'd never get away with it.

OTOH, I recall reading about an unscheduled, also unannounced visit to a famous cardiology unity that, when discovered accidently, was immediately glossed as PR.

What if this heartless sob is taking the long slide & is actually on the verge of dying of a broken heart???

[emptywheel]

tulip,

That's why I pointed out Newt's comment. No loyalty there, none. And he has been very closely involved with Dick throughout this Administration as a semi-official official.

[jimbeamin']

I would at least have a little respect for the Dick if he would do a photo op. on a damaged Gulf oil rig. Just to show us regular folk that someone is looking into the hurricane-related "enregy crisis".

Whoa! Energy Crisis; I haven't heard that term in 20 years. Perhaps it should be referred to as the "Bush energy crisis".

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