Dubya's Erector Set

I didn’t watch Dubya’s speech the other night because his vocal cadence and facial expressions make me crazy. I read about it instead, detecting in the text the hand of Herr Karl Rove. For the first time in his presidency, Dubya admitted responsibility for failure. What a moment, what a concept, what a breakthrough for our man-child president. He’s human! He even mentioned poverty and racism, although he failed to note how the hard-hearted policies of his administration have contributed to the perpetuation of both.

I saw on the TV news a day later footage of Dubya with a bullhorn, exhorting rescue workers or was it a small crowd of hand-picked supporters, thoroughly screened for ideological purity? Hard to say with Rove & Co. They’ve elevated political spin and fakery to an art form during the past five years. Anyway, Dubya promises a massive rebuilding effort on the ravaged Gulf Coast, all to be accomplished without raising taxes or revoking his tax cuts for the wealthy.

In other words, more of the same “starve the beast” policy. How in the hell can the federal government lead a massive reconstruction effort on the cheap? Dubya says wasteful or unnecessary government spending will be cut in order to fund reconstruction. Is he serious? Does he think people believe that crap? He’s already slashed millions of dollars from public health, environmental protection, education; the list goes on for a mile or more. I didn’t hear Dubya pledge to end our disastrous and money-sucking occupation of Iraq.

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times calls Dubya “Incurious George.” Dubya claims not to read newspapers or watch Fox News, and he frowns on his staff bringing him unpleasant news, so there’s a fifty-fifty chance that he’s unaware of the massive federal budget deficit, debt which is currently being financed by China and Saudi Arabia. Note to Dubya: Get Over Your Failed Ideology and Raise Taxes so all Americans share the reconstruction sacrifice.

Considering how badly Dubya and his cronies fared in the reconstruction of Iraq, it’s difficult to imagine them succeeding on the Gulf Coast. This administration is good at corruption and cronyism, not so good at construction.