Incompetence's Platonic Ideal

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/7403

Incompetence's Platonic Ideal
by P.M. Carpenter | May 11 2007 - 10:22am | permalink
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Writers everywhere are running out of apposite adjectives to describe the Bush administration's incompetence at every level. The noun -- incompetence -- is no problem. That quality is clear enough. But since Katrina its incompetence has mutated into a heretofore unseen perfection.

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Not only does he give the appearance of not caring, either about whatever the crisis happens to be or even about his uncaring appearance, he now goes out of his way to affirm how little his administration cares and how forcefully it'll prove it. I can't quite put my finger on the right adjective, but it's a kind of pugnacious, in-your-face, deliberate incompetence. Normally chief executives try to hide incompetence; Bush seems proud of his. It's that fundamental contradiction that makes describing it so bewildering.

Just the latest case in point is the Greensburg KS catastrophe in which a lethal, two-mile-wide tornado wiped the town off the map. Obviously no government can prevent natural disasters, but most governments at least respond to them, and usually do so without being asked.

That's what Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has been trying to do, though we already knew, as she properly pointed out Monday, "that a shortage of tents, trucks, helicopters and trained personnel that had been sent to Iraq was hampering rescue and aid efforts." That much was a given, and no surprise.

But the administration's response to Gov. Sebelius staggers any mind with any sense of orderliness. "If you don't request , you're not going to get it," said White House spokesman Tony Snow. "As far as we know, the only thing the governor has requested are FM radios. There have been no requests to the National Guard for heavy equipment." As Roger Simon of the Politico reported, "By Tuesday afternoon, Snow admitted that Sebelius had requested more than FM radios, including search-and-rescue teams."

It's hardly the "clarification" that staggers. It's the fact that the White House's studied, initial, and wholly assbackward political response to a devastated community was that its state government -- one part of our United States -- was expected to first cruise appropriate bureaucratic channels to receive emergency aid, even though the federal government was as aware of the need as the state.

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the National Guard and equipment to Iraq, they would have what they needed to respond appropriately to this disaster!

ww

Because it incorporates the deliberate "I don't give a damn" hallmark of the Misadministration.

The Federal government cannot send troops into a state willy-nilly. Otherwise, the Federal government would be violating state sovereignty/states rights. The governor HAS to ask first.

sure didn't tak the dim one long to get down there though, did it, for his cheezy photo-op.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=847026

...in answer to the original poster's criticizing the fact that Sebelius would have to 'ask' for help first--not what happened when, and if, she did. The Fed. gov--no matter who is in charge--cannot send troops into a state willy nilly. States DO retain all their states rights; Sebelius HAD to ask. No matter how much we may dislike this admin. it's not fair to criticize it on THIS particular point. I would have more criticism if the Feds simply bullied their way in and hadn't even checked out what the governor wanted.

worth the read...