White House Week
Were the Feds Fiddling While New Orleans Flooded?
Republican strategists were hoping that President Bush's show of leadership and empathy during a tour of Mobile, Biloxi, and New Orleans on Friday would offset his lackluster performance earlier last week--and bring hope not only to the populace of the stricken Gulf Coast but to his political shipmates as well. Anger over what appeared to be a slow federal response to the disaster wreaked by Hurricane Katrina had brought virulent criticism from local officials--and from Democrats everywhere--and Bush's own evaluation at week's end that the federal effort was "not acceptable" didn't help. White House insiders admitted Bush wasn't at the top of his game earlier in the week, but they predicted he would right himself and turn public perceptions around--much as he did after 9/11 when, after a tentative first reaction, he delivered a powerful call to arms at the World Trade Center. One aide suggested that Bush pick one person to update the public on hurricane relief efforts--"There is nobody holding round-the-clock briefings like Rudy Giuliani did during 9/11" --and that the president provide "inspirational and heartfelt" rhetoric.
Meanwhile, several GOP strategists worried that the slow federal response would seriously hurt the party in 2006. "People already weren't happy before this happened," said one. "It looks like we're not doing anything." In Washington, therefore, the blame game began, with some calling for Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to get the ax. Administration officials, however, said that firing Chertoff would not be smart in the midst of the Katrina disaster. At any rate, said Joe Lockhart, a Democratic strategist and former White House press secretary for President Bill Clinton, "the buck eventually stops in the Oval Office."
No Shrinking Violet Here at the U.N.
John Bolton is already making waves as U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations. Appointed just a month ago, Bolton is spearheading an effort to redraft a contentious document on U.N. reform, human rights, genocide, and more into a concise statement of principles in sync with Bush administration thinking. Diplomats complain, however, that he proposed so many changes--from slight wording shifts to big stuff, some 750 in all--that he risks scuttling the process that is supposed to churn out the document for an international conclave September 14-16 with more than 170 world leaders--including George Bush.
Meanwhile, in the Middle East...
The Bush administration has frequently outlined its vision for spreading democracy in the Middle East. But a panel of outside experts convened by the National Intelligence Council has issued a worrisome assessment of the region's potential for democratizing. "The odds are still against such a development," it concludes. Several Arab nations have made tentative steps toward limited elections, but the NIC experts deride the moves as "tactical [and] easily reversible." Panelists found that while many people favor democracy, their opinions are "shallow [and] illiberal." Even if these forces gain strength, it would ironically be from Islamist movements. "Most participants believed that significant secular democratic forces are unlikely to emerge," the report says.
With Kenneth T. Walsh, Paul Bedard, Thomas Omestad and Kevin Whitelaw Kenneth T. Walsh, Paul Bedard, Thomas Omestad and Kevin Whitelaw Kenneth T. Walsh, Paul Bedard, Thomas Omestad and Kevin Whitelaw
This story appears in the September 12, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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