Rove-anoia Rampant At NYT

When President Clinton toured a disaster area, the media often made a big deal of his warm style, but rarely (if ever) wrote about the public relations machinations behind the scene in the Clinton White House.

It's routine. Whether its election season or disaster season, the White House PR and campaign staffs coordinate to make sure the people have up-close, telegenic experiences with the president and cabinet, whether it's a GOP or Dem administration.

But now that the president is George Bush, and now that Carl Rove is in the picture, routine political PR has been elevated to grand schemes.

Under the command of President Bush's two senior political advisers, the White House rolled out a plan this weekend to contain the political damage from the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina.

It orchestrated visits by cabinet members to the region, leading up to an extraordinary return visit by Mr. Bush planned for Monday, directed administration officials not to respond to attacks from Democrats on the relief efforts, and sought to move the blame for the slow response to Louisiana state officials, according to Republicans familiar with the White House plan.

The effort is being directed by Mr. Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove, and his communications director, Dan Bartlett. It began late last week after Congressional Republicans called White House officials to register alarm about what they saw as a feeble response by Mr. Bush to the hurricane, according to Republican Congressional aides.

"Under the command," "orchestrated visits" -- do you get the sense that the NYT would like you to think there's something cynical going on here?

You betcha! It was as if the NYT set up a T-ball for Leftybloggers to wail away at:

• Of course, this is the important part of the hard job of presidentin'. God forbid they should spend their time, oh, trying to protect our country. The Sideshow.

• But don't worry, the White House has a plan ... to alleviate the terrible press it's been getting. Yes, Karl Rove & co. have their priorities straight. ... Truly inspiring. Politics always comes first with this crowd. Brendan Nyhan
  

• Considering that most of these people needed to be evacuated to Texas (another state), blaming a local or even state official is a swiftboat smear of the uttermost immorality. These slugs are beyond human decency! Comment on Think Progress

Much of the criticism centered on the NYT's speculation that the GOP "sought to move the blame for the slow response to Louisiana state officials."

This is an unattributed statement, no source is given, named or unnamed, yet the supposedly source-conscious NYT gives it big play. NYT can sourse to an unnamed GOP source that administration officials have been instructed to not respond to Democratic criticism, but no source is given for shifting blame to Dems.

In any case, everyone knows we can count on the Dems to point out any weaknesses in the GOP side of response. Good. Let's learn and do better next time.

We can't count on them to point out the weaknesses of the Dem side of the situation, so that's the GOP's role.