Karl Rove in charge of reconstruction efforts?

A recent post by Josh Marshall (who writes Talking Points Memo) underlines how the administration works and how they're dealing with the aftermath of Katrina: mismanagement as usual. And guess who Bush is putting in charge of heading the reconstruction funding?

Let's all be clear about one thing.

As we suggested last night, and as President Bush has now put us on notice, the Gulf Coast reconstruction effort is going to be run as a patronage and political operation.

That's not spin or hyperbole. They're saying it themselves.

The president has put Karl Rove in charge of the reconstruction, with a budget of a couple hundred billion dollars.

They've announced this in various ways over the last few days. But here's another, from today's Times ...

Republicans said Karl Rove, the White House deputy chief of staff and Mr. Bush's chief political adviser, was in charge of the reconstruction effort, which reaches across many agencies of government and includes the direct involvement of Alphonso R. Jackson, secretary of housing and urban development.

Karl Rove runs political operations and manages coalitions through patronage. That's what he does. And that's what this is about.

Not a big surprise - but totally unacceptable.