The Political Chase

Pelosi on Safavian

From The Stakeholder, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on David Safavian:

Question. Madame Leader, you mentioned David Safavian - are you concerned with his wife being Congressman Davis’s chief investigative lawyer for the committee, further would hinder in your view that committee’s ability to conduct a thorough investigation?

Leader Pelosi. Well as you know I have little confidence in the committee that Mr. Davis will supposedly head. I think this further worsens the situation. The question of a husband and wife are always separate ones - the spouses are not responsible for their counterpart’s activities. But I do say when there is a direct link to the White House and procurement and the investigation this committee is supposed to conduct then I think that shatters all sense of confidence. I’d be interested in how Mr. Safavian got his job - I think several questions are raised. Like Mr. Brown, he really has no credentials. Mr. Brown at FEMA, Mr. Safavian doesn’t have the credentials that would justify him being the top procurement person for the White House and assigned now to Katrina which is an urgent matter for the victims of Katrina and the American taxpayers who will pay the tab on this. So how did he get his job? How does a person who was a staffer in Congress, I think he worked for Mr. Abramoff for a while, and then became the top procurement official in the White House. So how did he get that job? Did any influential members of Congress recommend him to that job? Is there a connection between his wife and that recommendation? Let’s say this, when confidence is so low here as far as the investigation of Katrina and how we got to where we are. All of this is for the safety of the American people. All of this is to be done as Mr. Waxman said in real time on this contracting because this is happening now. There is no point really investigating it after the fact and said, ‘Oh, we wasted all this money.’ Let’s save the taxpayer’s money now. The top procurement officer from the White House was arrested yesterday. Until then he was doing the procurement work for Katrina, his wife is the chief counsel for the committee government reform that the chair of which will take over the investigation of Katrina. I think the links are too close to inspire any sense of confidence and I’d like to know how Mr. Safavian got his job in the first place and did his friends in Congress have any role in that.

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Karl Rove off the Record

TalkLeft has some off the record comments made by Karl Rove while he was in Aspen, CO this past weekend and absent from the Gulf Coast region doing his job.

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British Food Aid to Be Burned

The gratitude, efficiency, and effectiveness of our government… 

HUNDREDS of tons of British food aid shipped to America for starving Hurricane Katrina survivors is to be burned.

US red tape is stopping it from reaching hungry evacuees.

Instead tons of the badly needed Nato ration packs, the same as those eaten by British troops in Iraq, has been condemned as unfit for human consumption.

And unless the bureaucratic mess is cleared up soon it could be sent for incineration.

One British aid worker last night called the move "sickening senselessness" and said furious colleagues were "spitting blood".

The food, which cost British taxpayers millions, is sitting idle in a huge warehouse after the Food and Drug Agency recalled it when it had already left to be distributed.

Scores of lorries headed back to a warehouse in Little Rock, Arkansas, to dump it at an FDA incineration plant.

The Ministry of Defence in London said last night that 400,000 operational ration packs had been shipped to the US.

But officials blamed the US Department of Agriculture, which impounded the shipment under regulations relating to the import and export of meat.

The aid worker, who would not be named, said: "This is the most appalling act of sickening senselessness while people starve.

Hat tip to Daily Kos

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More on David Safavian’s Arrest

Safavians’s arrest yesterday gets rather deep.  The Raw Story has detailed info.

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Riding the Storm Out

Click to enlargeIf the NHC’s predictions are accurate (usually are), it looks like New Orleans will at minimum receive more rain that it needs (can handle). The first image is the NHC’s track forecast as of 2:00 PM EDT.

Moreover, according to the second image it may be a category three by landfall wherever it hits. The second image is the NHC’s wind strength forecast as of 11:00 AM EDT.

Click to enlarge

I have to ask the question…I wonder where Karl Rove is at the moment and is he going to be the Recovery Czar for Rita also?

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When is Karl Rove Going to Start Work?

Nothing changes in the Bush administration.  It’s all rhetoric.  Karl Rove, Chief Politician and Recovery Commander-in-Chief is everywhere except the Gulf Coast region.

On Friday he was in Greensboro, NC at a Republican fundraiser and for the rest of the weekend he was at a "super-exclusive conference" sponsored by leaders of Forstmann Little, an investment company.

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Vouchers by Hook or Crook

Looks like the administration will implement educational vouchers any way they can, even if it is limited to Katrina. $7,500 per student, per year sounds a bit steep to me  for public funding regardless of whether you are for vouchers or against them. 

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NBC Digs Deep

NBC is digging deep (or is that stooping low) to increase their ratings by putting Martha Stewart in a Donald Trump (Apprentice) spinoff.

Sounds like White House administered training for NBC’s top management.  If someone has screwed up, promote them or give them a significant award (e.g., George Tenent - Medal of Freedom, Condy Rice - Sec’y of State, Wolfowitz - World Bank) 

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Putting Wal-Mart CEO in charge of FEMA or NO Reconstruction

In tomorrow’s New York Times, Frank Rich discusses putting Wal-Mart’s CEO in charge of FEMA.  I have pointed out that Wal-Mart could do what the federal government claimed was impossible (here, here and here).

But, if Wal-Mart’s CEO begins to carry considerable weight in any administration, matters such as the Davis-Bacon Act will be trivial and major social programs (e.g., health care) will become non-existent. 

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More on Safavian…

The NYT has more on the arrest of Safavian, including this all too familiar White House statement.

 The White House said in a statement that Mr. Safavian had resigned on Friday and that "we, of course, will cooperate fully with the Justice Department in this investigation." A spokesman said the White House would have no further comment on the arrest.

When drilled by White House reporters tomorrow, maybe McLellan should replay the video of press briefings in the early days of Katrina.

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Creative debate for one…

Creative, brilliant minds are everywhere…except here.

The perpetual collapse of Iraq brings up an important philosophical debate. Is the state an ascendent or descendent institution? Let’s dive into this:

If the state (and the state system in aggregate) is still a thriving institution, historical forces will conspire to drive the creation of states. States will spontaneously re-emerge if disrupted. Further, actions taken (read: invasions and regime change) against states will result in temporary chaos followed by easy and rapid stability. If the state system is in decline (ala Martin van Creveld), states will find it increasingly difficult to maintain financial viability, deliver critical services to citizens, control their borders and economy, and maintain a monopoly on violence. States that are disrupted will find it difficult, if not impossible, to re-establish order and functionality. Historical forces will conspire to defeat any attempt at reforming the order of the state.

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Cry Me a River

Someone have an emesis basin handy?

On Thursday night President Bush spoke to the nation from my city. I am not a Republican. I did not vote for George W. Bush - in fact, I worked pretty hard against him in 2000 and 2004. But on Thursday night, after watching him speak from the heart, I could not have been prouder of the president and the plan he outlined to empower those who lost everything and to rebuild the Gulf Coast.

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The Fat Lady Has All But Sung

Well, now even the conservatives think this president is all but washed up…

"You run down the list of things we thought we could accomplish and you have to wonder what we thought we were thinking," says a Bush Administration member who joined on in 2001. "You get the impression that we’re more than listless. We’re sunk."

Too pessimistic? Maybe not. Rumors are flying through various departments of longtime senior Bush loyalists looking to jump, but with few opportunities in the private sector to make the jump look like anything more than desperation.

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DOJ Arrests Federal Procurement Policy Administrator

The Department of Justice arrested David Safavian, the Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, which handles the procurement policy for the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

That’s just great since the White House is going to spend at least $200 billion for Katrina reconstruction, which will be led by Karl Rove.  Remember, Rove is being investigated by a grand jury for outing Valerie Plame Wilson (CIA agent). 

 Late Update:  More here.

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Some Katrina Humor

Well, levity always rises no matter how bad the situation is.  Read here.

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